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the very same perfections among more ancient 

 races of beings, and by His providence governing 

 other worlds, formed of the very same materials, 

 and impressed with the same natural laws, is 

 an employment calculated to fill the imagination 

 and to elevate and enlarge the mind ; and it is 

 deeply to be regretted, that the rash speculations, 

 and contemptible views of human vanity, should 

 ever have mingled with so high and sacred an 

 enquiry. 



It is not, however, my intention, in the pre- 

 sent short sketch, to travel, farther than I have 

 already done, beyond the bounds of the Mosaic 

 creation, for proofs of that profound wisdom of 

 which the world is full, or to engage in a con- 

 troversy with the infidel, as to the nature or 

 extent of the geological indications at which I 

 have glanced. What scripture so unequivocally 

 avers is conceded on all hands that man was 

 the last formed of living beings ; and it is even 

 allowed that the other animals which now exist 

 with him on the surface of the globe, belong 

 entirely to his epoch, and are not to be found 

 in the deposits of an earlier period. These 

 concessions, which the infidel makes with reluc- 

 tance, and not without various -qualifications, I 

 cannot but regard as a triumph to the cause of 

 Christian truth ; and as every day is bringing 

 new facts to light, which are sweeping away the 

 flimsy foundation on which his speculations rest, 

 I confidently anticipate the time when those phe- 

 nomena which, on a superficial view, appear the 



