44 THE EARTH. 



which must fill all who contemplate and study them with 

 enlarged ideas of His wisdom, goodness, and power. We 

 see the millions of stars sparkling in the abyss of space, 

 and our minds are so formed that we can measure and 

 gauge their distances and rates of travelling, their orbits 

 and their sizes, their weights, and the powers with which 

 they attract and influence each other; but we only con- 

 template a star as one bright and beautiful object worthy 

 to be one of the gems which the Almighty has set in His 

 crown of glory, or a lamp to light the halls of His infinite 

 habitation, but we still contemplate it as a single object ; 

 while on the surface of the earth our Maker has permitted 

 us to roam and search out by what benevolent contrivances 

 He has suited all things to the comfort and welfare of His 

 creatures. How His mercy and goodness are extended amply 

 to the most minute animalcule as well as to man, and how 

 His powers of construction are to be found in the most minute 

 objects which the microscope can display, as perfect as in 

 the largest creature we behold. It is here upon our earth 

 that we perceive how the structure and functions of all 

 creatures are regulated and controlled by the unerring laws 

 which He has created, over which laws the creatures have 

 no control, and which if duly regarded and used according 

 to the faculties each has been gifted with, will return the 

 greatest joy and happiness their several natures are capable 

 of, and secure all that perfection of operation which their 

 mechanical frames are suited to perform ; but before any 

 description of the organised beings which dwell on the 

 earth can be given, it will be proper to enter into a description 

 of the earth itself, to see what sort of place God has provided 

 for them, and how through succeeding cycles of time He 

 has gradually perfected and prepared it for the reception of 

 His last great work, Man. 



It is only a few miles below the surface of the earth that 

 man has been able to penetrate and examine, but reason comes 

 to assist him where examination fails, and it would have 

 been but a few hundred yards only that his labours could 

 have extended had it not been that parts, which are gene- 

 rally situated miles below the surface, are occasionally found 



