NATURAL HISTORY. 17*1 



well as vegetable frame. Chemical changes immediately 

 follow the total privation of life, the importance of which be- 

 comes instantly evident when it is no more. If the human 

 understanding can in any case flatter itself with obtaining, 

 in the natural world, a glimpse of the immediate agency of 

 the Deity, it is in the contemplation of this i^z^aZ l^rmapZe, 

 which seems independent of material organization, and an 

 impulse of his own divine energy. 



The man who surveys the vast field of nature, and de- 

 votes a portion of his time to the study of the principles 

 which influence, or govern, the motions of animated beings, 

 however minute they may be, will not only derive pleasure 

 from the pursuit, but he will gain the only means of disco- 

 vering the object and utility oS their creation. And as he 

 journeys along from one gradation of knowledge to another, 

 he will become more and more intimate with the designs of 

 the great Creator of all. He will gain a more comprehen- 

 sive view of that wonderful and illimitable power which hath 

 organized the universe, for purposes with which, in the ful- 

 ness of time, the wise and the virtuous will doubtless be 

 made acquainted. But knowledge must ever be progressive ; 

 and he who makes the attempt to read the characters by 

 which the wisdom, power, beneficence, and eternal nature 

 of God is stamped upon every thing here beloW, will not do 

 it in vain. 



He suits to nature's reign th' inquiring eye, 

 Skill'd all her soft gradations to descry ; 

 From Matter's mode through Instinct's narrow sway, 

 To Reason's gradual but unbounded way, 

 ^ And sees through all the wonder-varied chain 

 No link omitted, no appendage vain, 

 But all supporting and supported, till 

 The whole is perfect as the Author's will. 



Hence even the meanest points of Nature's care 



Fix his attention — his attachment share : 



The pebble, through pellucid waters shown, 



The moss that clothes — the shrub that cleaves to stone, 



The modest-tinted flowers that deck the glade, 



The aged tree that spreads its awful shade, 



The feathered race that wing the ethereal way, 



The insect tribes that float upon the ray, 



