THE EARTH 159 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE CONCLUSION. 



HAVING thus gone through a particular description of the earth, lei 

 js now pause for a moment, to contemplate the great picture before 

 js. The universe may be considered as the palace in which the Deity 

 resides; and this earth as one of its apartments. In this, all the 

 meaner races of animated nature mechanically obey him ; and stand 

 ready to execute his commands without hesitation. Man alone is 

 found refractory ; he is the only being endued with a power of con- 

 tradicting these mandates. The Deity was pleased to exert superior 

 power in creating him a superior being; a being endued with a choice 

 of good and evil ; and capable, in some measure, of co-operating with 

 his own intentions. Man, therefore, rriay be considered as a- limited 

 creature, endued with powers imitative of those residing in the Deity. 

 He is thrown into a world that stands in need of his help ; and has 

 been granted a power of producing harmony from partial confusion. 



If, therefore, we consider the earth as allotted for our habitation, 

 we shall find, that much has been given us to enjoy, and much to 

 amend ; that we have ample reasons for our gratitude, and still more 

 for our industry. In those great outlines of nature, to which art can- 

 not reach, and where our greatest efforts must have been ineffectual, 

 God himself has finished these with amazing grandeur and beauty. 

 Our beneficent Father has considered these parts of nature as peculi- 

 arly his own ; as parts which no creature could have skill or strength 

 to amend ; and therefore made them incapable of alteration, or of 

 more perfect regularity. The heavens and the firmament show the 

 wisdom and the glory of the Workman. Astronomers, who are best 

 skilled in the symmetry of systems, can find nothing there that they 

 can alter for the better. God made these perfect, because no subor- 

 dinate being could correct their defects. 



When, therefore, we survey nature on this side, nothing can be 

 more splendid, more correct, or amazing. We there behold a Deity 

 residing in the midst of a universe, infinitely extended every way, 

 animating all, and cheering the vacuity with his presence ! We be- 

 hold an immense and shapeless mass of matter, formed into worlds 

 by his power, and dispersed at intervals, to which even the imagina- 

 tion cannot travel ! In this great theatre of his glory, a thousand 

 suns, like our own, animate their respective systems, appearing and 

 vanishing at Divine command. We behold our own bright luminary 

 fixed in the centre of its system, wheeling its planets in times propor- 

 tioned to their distances, and at once dispensing light, heat, and action. 

 The earth also is seen with its twofold motion ; producing, by the one, 

 the change of seasons ; and by the other, the grateful vicissitudes of 

 day and night. With what silent .magnificence is all this performed ! 

 with what seeming ease ! The works of art are exerted with intei- 

 rupted force ; and their noisy progress discovers the obstructions they 

 receive : but the earth, with a silent steady rotation, successively pre- 

 sents every part of its bjsom to the sun; at once imbibing nourisli 

 uient and ligh' from that parent of vegetation and fertility. 



