42 Natural Theology. 



ground, and its kind has done so for thousands of 

 generations. If we could but for a moment see the 

 Divine Hand apply the rule, weigh the elements, 

 and join the varied cells, how different the case 

 would be ! But from the work alone, the builder 

 must be known to us. As we walk among the old 

 ruins, it is hard to realize that the stones were hewn 

 and raised and joined by men. When the Ameri- 

 can first visits Mount Vernon, how difficult for him 

 to realize that here really is the home of the hero 

 whose name he has revered. It is not strange, then, 

 that this difficulty of realizing should in the case of 

 natural objects sometimes end in doubt of a Per- 

 sonal God. It is not strange, at least, that it should 

 result so to those who see no more than they saw 

 when they were children the merest fragments of 

 the common forms that surround them. And though 

 the wondrous works of design should be described, 

 it is not he who studies them in books alone, but he 

 whose eye has seen the living loop and hinge, that 

 can understand their power to convince. What 

 knows the man who has merely read of Mount 

 Washington, of the sense of power he feels who 

 climbs the Titan blocks which form that grand 

 monument of nature's forces ? What knows the 

 man who has simply read of Niagara, of the emo- 

 tions of him who looks up to the bending flood and 

 is deafened by its thunder ? It is the real thing, 

 and not its description, that must be relied upon to 

 convince. And if we wish to prove the strength of 

 the argument from design, must we look to those 



