622 DECLINE OF THE SYSTEM. 



while gliding down the stream of time, we lapse 

 into old age, which insidiously steals on us 

 before we are aware of its approach. But the 

 same provident power which presided at our 

 birth, which superintended the growth of all the 

 organs, which infused animation into each as 

 they arose, and which has conducted the system 

 unimpaired to its maturity, is still exerted in 

 adjusting the conditions under which it is 

 placed in its season of decline. New arrange- 

 ments are made, new energies are called forth, 

 and new resources are employed, to accommo- 

 date it to its altered circumstances, to prop the 

 shattered fabric, and retard the progress of its 

 decay. In proportion as the supply of nutritive 

 materials has become less abundant, a more 

 strict economy is practised with regard to their 

 disposal ; the substance of the body is hus- 

 banded with greater care ; the absorbent vessels 

 are employed to remove such parts as are no 

 longer useful; and when all these adjustments 

 have been made, the functions still go on for 

 a considerable length of time without material 

 alteration. 



The period prescribed for its duration being 

 at length completed, and the ends of its exist- 

 ence accomplished, the fabric can no longer 

 be sustained, and preparation must be made 

 for its inevitable fall. In order to form a cor- 

 rect judgment of the real intentions of nature, 



