SENSATION, 363 



only has the Divine Architect employed all the 

 properties and powers of matter, which science 

 has yet revealed to man, but has also brought 

 into play the higher and more mysterious ener- 

 gies of nature, and has made them to concur in 

 the great work that was to be performed. On 

 the organized fabric there has been conferred a 

 vital force ; with the powers of mechanism have 

 been conjoined those of chemistry ; and to these 

 have been superadded the still more subtle and 

 potent agencies of caloric and of electricity : 

 every resource has been employed, every refine- 

 ment practised, every combination exhausted 

 that could ensure the stability, and prolong the 

 duration of the system, amidst the multifarious 

 causes which continually menace it with destruc- 

 tion. It has been supplied with ample means of 

 repairing the accidents to which it ic ordinarily 

 exposed ; it has been protected from the injurious 

 influence of the surrounding elements, and fitted 

 to resist for a lengthened period the inroads of 

 disease, and the progress of decay. 



But can this, which is mere physical exist- 

 ence, be the sole end of life ? Is there no fur- 

 ther purpose to be answered by structures so 

 exquisitely contrived, and so bountifully pro- 

 vided with the means of maintaining an active 

 existence, than the mere accumulation and co- 

 hesion of inert materials, differing from the 

 stones of the earth only in the more artificial 



