AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 131 



animal kingdom, so fully brought out since his time, 

 has to many a stronger bearing than all the special 

 adaptations so clearly presented by him. His first 

 sentence, " That if in crossing a heath (suppose) he 

 pitched his foot against a stone, and were asked 

 how it came to be there, he might possibly an- 

 swer that, for any thing he knew to the contrary, it 

 had lain there forever," is a landmark in science, 

 and shows the wonderful changes since his time. 

 That same pebble would bring to the mind now the 

 vast forces that have spent their fury on the crust 

 of our earth all that war of the elements by which 

 the earth was fitted for our dwelling-placeall the 

 movements of that vast plan which has been 

 moving on for countless ages, when no eye but that 

 of God looked upon the scene ; of which no record 

 is left, but that engraven upon the hills, and scat- 

 tered with the pebbles, in Paley's day an un- 

 known language, now rendered vocal by the light of 

 science, as the statue of Memnon gave forth sweet 

 sounds of music when lighted by the rays of the 

 rising sun. 



In the vegetable kingdom we see special adapta- 



