232 EXISTENCE OF THE DEITY. 



Animalcules, which have been called infusorial animals, {Infusoria,) 

 because they are principally found in some animal and vegetable 

 fluids and infusions.] 12. What are the orders of Vermes accordinj; 

 to Linnaeus .-" (see Appendix.) 13. In treating of a particular animal, 

 how are naturalists accustomed to designate it ? 14. Give examples.' 



LESSON 103. ] 



Existence of the Deity. ^^ 



God and the world which he has formed are our great i 

 objects. Every thing which we strive to place between these ; 

 is nothing. We see the universe, and seeing it, we believe ] 

 in its Maker. The universe exhibits indisputable marks of \ 

 design : it is not, therefore, self-existing, but the work of a 1 

 designing mind. From the great masses that roll through 

 space, to the slightest atom that forms one of their impercep- jj 

 tible elements, every thing is conspiring for some purjjosc. \ 

 I shall not speak of the relations of the planetary motions : 

 to each other, — of the mutual relations of the various parts ? 

 of our globe, — of the dilFerent animals of the ditferent ele- 

 ments, in the conformity of their structure to the qualities of ^ 

 the elements which they inhabit, — of man himself in all the j 

 nice adaptation of his organs : — to these splendid proofs, it is j 

 scarcely necessary to do more than to allude. But when 

 we think of the feeblest and most insignificant of living 

 things, — the minutest insect which it requires a microscope ' 

 to discover, when we think of it as a creature, having limhs \ 

 that move it from place to place, — nourished by little vessels,  

 that bear to every fibre of its frame, some portion of the food 

 which other organs have rendered fit for serving the pur- < 

 poses of nutrition ; — having senses, as quick to discern the 

 objects that bear to it any relative magnitude as ours, — • 

 and not merely existing as a living piece of most beautiful 

 mechanism, but having the power, which no mere mechan- 

 ism, however beautiful, ever had, of multiplying its own 

 existence, by the production of living machines exactly re- 

 sembling itself; — when we think of all the proofs of con- ^ 

 trivance which are thus to be found in what seems to us a 

 single atom, or less than a single atom, and when we think 

 of the myriads, and myriads of such atoms, which inhabit 

 even the smallest portion of that earth, which is itself but 



