28 LETTER VII. 



fields and produce vegetation, to generate springs 

 which furnish us with water, a substance indispen- 

 sably necessary to all vegetable and animal exis- 

 tence, and form rivers, serving as canals for the con- 

 veyance of merchandise and affording an easy com- 

 munication between distant provinces. 



It would, my dear sir, very far exceed the limits of 

 of a letter, or even a volume, to point out the perfect 

 adaptation of causes to effects, and of means to ends, 

 every where visible in this portion of the created 

 system with which we are acquainted. I shall, in 

 this place, mak* only one observation of the wonder- 

 ful and well adapted proportion between the sun and 

 those vast bodies which revolve round that great cen- 

 tral source of light and heat, in our system. With re- 

 gard to this globe >\hich we inhabit, it is evident that 

 had it been much smaller it would not have sufficed 

 for the reception and support of that numerous and 

 varied assemblage of beings to whom the diffusive 

 goodness of a benevolent Creator, after having con- 

 ferred on them the blessing of existence, assigned 

 the earth for their destined abode. Had the sun been 

 less, it must have been much nearer to aftord us a 

 portion of light and heat suitable to our nature and 

 our wants ; out in this case the equatorial regions 

 only could have been wanned, while the rest would 

 have been bound up in eternal frost ; or if it had been 

 placed near enough to communicate u genial warmth 

 in higher latitudes, the countries nearer to the equator 

 must have been perpetually scorched with excessive 

 and insupportable heat. It is also not less easy to 

 demonstrate the propriety of the spherical form of 

 those hnnvense bodies than the just adaptation of their 

 distances. If we could with equal facility extend 

 our observations to rtic other planets which compose 

 our system, and were acquainted with the nature and 

 the exigences of their inhabitants, we should un- 

 doubtedly discover that their distances from the 

 central luminary are perfectly adapted to these cir- 

 cumstances. From the perfect symmetry of those 

 parts of the universe which lie within the sphere of 



