406 ONENESS OF CREATION. 



variety to matter. Light seeks out every world eacli 

 trembling star tells of the mystery of its presence. 

 Where light and heat are, chemical action, as an 

 associated power, must be present ; and electricity 

 must do its wondrous duties amongst them all. Modi- 

 fied by peculiar properties of matter, they may not 

 manifest themselves in phenomena like those of our 

 terrestrial nature ; but the evidence of light is a sufficient 

 proof of the presence of its kindred elements ; and it is 

 difficult to imagine all these powers in action without 

 producing some form of organization. In the rounded 

 pebble which we gather from the sea-shore, in the me- 

 dusa floating bright with all the beauty of prismatic 

 colour in the sun-lit sea, in the animal, mighty in his 

 strength, roaming the labyrinthine forests, or, great in 

 intelligence, looking from this to the mysteries of other 

 worlds, in all created things around us, we see direct 

 evidence of a beautifnl adjustment of the balance of 

 forces, and the harmonious arrangement of properties. 



One atom is removed from a mass and its character 

 is changed ; one force being rendered more active than 

 another, and the body, under its influence, ceases to be 

 the same in condition. The regulation which disposes 

 the arrangements of matter on this earth, must exist 

 through the celestial spaces, and every planet bears the 

 same relation to every other glittering mass in heaven's 

 overarching canopy, as one atom bears to another in the 

 pebble, the medusa, the lion, or the man. An indis- 

 soluble bond unites them all, and the grain of sand 

 which lies buried in the depth of one of our primary for- 

 mations, holds, chained to it by these all-pervading 

 forces, the uncounted worlds which, like luminous sand, 

 are sprinkled by the hand of the Creator through the 

 universe. Thus we advance to a conception of the one- 

 ness of creation. 



The vigorous mind of that immortal bard who sang 

 "of man's first disobedience/' never, in the highest 



