126 NATURAL HISTORY 



LECTUKE IV. 



NATURAL HISTORY AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 



"WHEN the oak spreads its sturdy branches, and 

 strikes its roots deeper among the cliffs of the moun- 

 tain, there is one work to which all its changes are 

 preparatory, and this is the production of fruit. In 

 the whole vegetable kingdom, with all its varied 

 beauty, every force and every change is subservient 

 to this higher work. The architect also lays his 

 foundation, but it is only that he may build upon it. 

 So God has broken up the crust of this globe, and 

 covered it with a succession of living forms, but it 

 was only that he might thus the better fit it as a 

 dwelling-place for rational man. To man He has 

 given an intellectual and an emotional nature, but 

 it is only as a condition for that higher religious 

 nature, in which man approaches most nearly the 

 perfect image of God. All nature is indeed made to 

 minister to the physical enjoyment of man, but the 

 wonderful plan of its frame-work is a fit counterpart 



