FINAL CAUSES. 9 



regulated by the law of definite proportions ; 

 a law, the discovery of which has conferred on 

 Chemistry the same character of precision which 

 appertains to the exact sciences, and which it 

 had never before attained. The phenomena 

 of Light, of Heat, of Electricity, and of Magnet- 

 ism have been, in like manner, reduced to laws 

 of sufficient simplicity to admit of the applica- 

 tion of mathematical reasoning, and to furnish 

 the accurate results derived from such applica- 

 tion. 



Thus to whatever department of physical 

 science our researches have extended, we every 

 where meet with the same regularity in the phe- 

 nomena, the same simplicity in the laws, and 

 the same uniformity in the results. All is 

 strictly defined, and subjected to rigid rule : all 

 is subordinate to one pervading principle of 

 order. The great Creator of the universe has 

 exercised in its construction the severest and 

 most refined geometry, has traced with unerring 

 precision the boundaries of all its parts, and 

 has prescribed to each element and each power 

 its respective sphere and limit. 



Far different is the aspect of living Nature. 

 The spectacle here offered to our view is every 

 where characterised by boundless variety, by 

 inscrutable complexity, by perpetual mutation. 

 Our attention is solicited to a vast multiplicity of 

 objects, curious and intricate in their mechanism, 



