AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 139 



vault of heaven, could recognize the expanse of the 

 cloudy firmanent and the might of the winds of 

 heaven, and admire the sun in its majesty, beauty, 

 and radiant effulgence ; and, lastly, when night 

 vailed the earth in darkness they could behold the 

 starry heavens, the changing moon, and the stars 

 rising and setting in the unvarying course ordained 

 from eternity they would surely exclaim, there are 

 gods, and such great things must be the work of 

 their hands." 



These wonderful works have been ever before us, 

 so that it is hard to realize that there was a time 

 when they were not and harder still to feel the 

 full force of the proof which their mechanism ought 

 to be to us. And the humbler objects of Natural 

 History, not calculated to excite emotions of grand- 

 eur and sublimity, which we daily tread beneath 

 our feet, would, according to the common laws of 

 mind, pass unnoticed, or when noticed fail to con- 

 vince us as they ought. There may be a wonder- 

 ful arrangement of parts, all fitted to produce a 

 certain result j but then we can not see the hand of 

 God tinting the flower, and arranging each part for 



