FINAL CAUSES. 3 



immensity of space, which, on every side, spreads 

 far beyond the sphere of our vision, and indeed 

 far beyond the powers of human imagination. 

 Of the planetary system, which includes this 

 earth, our knowledge is almost entirely limited 

 to the mathematical laws that regulate the mo- 

 tions of the bodies which compose it, and to the 

 celestial mechanism which patient investigation 

 has at length discovered to be that most admi- 

 rably calculated to preserve their harmony and 

 maintain their stability. Still less have we the 

 means of penetrating into the remoter regions of 

 the heavens, where the result of our investiga- 

 tions respecting the myriads of luminous bodies 

 they contain amounts to little more than the 

 knowledge of their existence, of their countless 

 numbers, and of the immeasurable distances at 

 which they are dispersed throughout the bound- 

 less realms of space. 



Measured on the vast scale of the universe, 

 the globe we inhabit appears but as an atom ; 

 and yet, within the compass of this atom, what 

 an inexhaustible variety of objects is contained : 

 what an endless diversity of phenomena is pre- 

 sented ; what wonderful changes are occurring 

 in rapid and perpetual succession ! Throughout 

 the whole series of terrestrial beings, what stu- 

 died arrangements, what preconcerted adapta- 

 tions, what multiplied evidences of intention, 

 what signal proofs of beneficent design exist to 



