IN ALL OTHER CREATURES. 229 



annihilating the weaker; and the dread of man's 

 supremacy is no more. The weakest, the very 

 insect, then assails him, and at times becomes the 

 victor. Does any conceivable or visible cause exist 

 from which this awe can proceed ? Does " his 

 sublime countenance, contemplative of the heavens," 

 the image that he bears, or his deportment, afford 

 any ascendant influence productive of this impres- 

 sion ? In bodily power he is more weak and ob- 

 noxious to injury than many that shrink from a 

 contest with him ; his natural arms and means of 

 protection are inferior often to those of the beings 

 which he subdues ; yet, from an undefinable cause, 

 he is omnipotent over all. Terror in man most 

 commonly arises from a knowledge of power, ap- 

 prehension of ills from accident, or fear of the evil 

 inclinations of another. What the fowls of the 

 air or the beasts of the field perceive, or are im- 

 pressed with, we know not ; but none of these 

 causes can exist in a brute mind without intelli- 

 gence or experience. These are the reflections of 

 a thoughtful hour. The cause, " though a man 

 labour to seek out, yet shall he not find it ; and 

 though a man think to know it, yet shall he not 

 be able." But the contemplation is not wholly an 

 unworthy occupation of time. All ages^ all people, 

 must have perceived the admitted power and uni- 

 versal dread occasioned by the presence of man ; 

 but no reason, no motive, could have been assigned 

 for it 5 but in these days, by revelation, we know 

 the cause, have impressed upon our minds the im- 



