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exalted degree of wisdom and power has been 

 requisite to call them into a state of being from 

 nothing. The branch of that old pear tree now 

 extended before me, is denuded and bare, present- 

 ing no object of curiosity or of pleasure ; but, had 

 we the faculty to detect, and power to observe, 

 what was going forward in its secret vessels^ be- 

 neath its rugged, unsightly covering, what wonder 

 and admiration would it create ! the materials 

 manufacturing there for its leaf, and its bark j for 

 the petals and parts of its flowers ; the tubes and 

 machinery that concoct the juices, modify the fluids, 

 and furnish the substance of the fruit, with multi- 

 tudes of other unknown operations and contrivances, 

 too delicate and mysterious to be seen, or even 

 comprehended, by the blindness, the defectibility 

 of our nature things of which we have no infor- 

 mation, being beyond the range of any of the 

 works or the employments of mankind ! We may 

 gather our pear, be pleased with its form or its 

 flavour ; we may magnify its vessels, analyze its 

 fluids, yet be no more sensible of its elaborate for- 

 mation, and the multiplicity of influences and ope- 

 rations requisite to conduct it to our use, than a 

 wandering native of a polar clime could be of the 

 infinite number of processes that are necessary to 

 furnish a loaf of bread, from ploughing the soil to 

 drawing from the oven. This is but an isolated 

 instance, amidst thousands of others more com- 



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