20 FINAL CAUSES. 



so complete and instantaneous a change ; so 

 sudden and awful a catastrophe ? Must we not 

 be animated by an eager desire to penetrate so 

 great a mystery, and resolve the many questions 

 which so striking a phenomenon must naturally 

 suggest ? What, we are led to ask, is the nature 

 of this extraordinary revolution, extending over 

 the whole of that frame which had so long de- 

 lighted the eye by its beauty, and producing 

 this sudden and irretrievable extinction of the 

 powers of life? How comes it that all those 

 mighty energies which the animal had so lately 

 displayed, and which had called forth our 

 admiration, perhaps even excited our envy, are 

 at once and for ever annihilated? What was 

 the bond, thus suddenly dissevered, which held 

 together the various parts of that compound 

 frame? What potent spell has been dissolved, 

 which could retain in combination for so long a 

 period the multifarious elements of that exquisite 

 organization ; and from the control of which 

 being now released, these elements hasten to 

 resume their wonted attractions, and entering 

 into new forms of combination, are scattered into 

 dust, or dissipated in air, leaving no trace of 

 their former union ? What mechanism has been 

 employed in its construction ? What refined 

 chemistry has been exerted in assimilating new 

 particles of matter to those previously organized, 

 and in appropriating them to the nourishment of 



