196 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



trained a vine, shorn a sheep, with the same bodily ease as 

 we do, if at all. A pigmy would have been lost among 

 rushes, or carried ofi^ by birds of prey. 



It may be mentioned, likewise, that the model and the 

 materials of the human body being what they are, a mucli 

 greater bulk would have broken down by its own weight. 

 The persons of men who much exceed the ordinary stature 

 betray this tendency. 



YI. Again — and which includes a vast variety of par- 

 ticulars, and those of the greatest importance — how close is 

 the suitableness of the earth and sea to their several inhabi- 

 tants, and of these inhabitants to the places of their appoint- 

 ed residence I 



Take the earth as it is, and consider the correspondency 

 of the powers of its inhabitants with the properties and con- 

 dition of the soil which they tread. Take the inhabitants 

 as they are, and consider the substances which the earth 

 yields for their use. They can scratch its surface, and its 

 surface supplies all which they want. This is the length of 

 their faculties ; and such is the constitution of the globe, and 

 their own, that this is sufficient for all their occasions. 



When we pass from the earth to the sea, from land to 

 water, we pass through a great change ; but an adequate 

 change accompanies us, of animal forms and functions, of ani- 

 mal capacities and wants, so that correspondency remains. 

 The earth in its nature is very different from the sea, and 

 the sea from the earth, but one accords with its inhabitants 

 ,18 exactly as the other. 



VII. The last relation of this kind which I shall men- 

 tion is that of sleep to 7iight, and it appears to me to be a 

 relation which was expressly intended. Two points are 

 manifest : first, that the animal frame requires sleep ; sec- 

 ondly, that night brings with it a silence and a cessation ol 

 activity, which allows of sleep being taken without interrup- 

 tion and without loss. Animal existence is made up of ac- 

 tion and slumber ; nature has provided a season for each 



