102 LESSONS FROM NATURE. 



tude of other phenomena of nature, and the subserviency of 

 most of these to man, ought, certainly, to induce him, as a 

 rational creature, to conclude that this vast, beautiful, orderly, 

 and, in a word, many ways admirable, system of things, that 

 we call the world, was framed by an Author supremely power- 

 ful, wise, and good. 



The works of God, he adds, are so worthy of their Author, 

 that, besides the impresses of His wisdom and goodness that 

 are left, as it were, upon their surfaces, there are a great many 

 more curious and excellent tokens and effects of Divine arti- 

 fice in the hidden and innermost recesses of them ; and these 

 are not to be discovered by the perfunctory looks of oscitant 

 and unskilful beholders ; but require, as well as deserve, the 

 most attentive and prying inspection of inquisitive and well- 

 instructed considerers. It is not by a slight survey, but by a 

 diligent and skilful scrutiny of the works of God, that a man 

 must be, by a rational and affective conviction, engaged to 

 acknowledge, with the prophet, that the Author of nature is 

 " wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." 



That He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working 

 must be the conclusion of every devout student of the celestial 

 phenomena ; and to those we shall, therefore, devote the first 

 portion of our Spring meditations. 



What reception would formerly have been given to any 

 poet who had dared to exclaim 



" The bright face of the heavens contemplate, 

 And then, as in a mirror, you shall see, 

 Outlined, the figure of the rounded earth " ? 



