572 UNITY OF DESIGN. 



US to acquire, by its exercise, a knowledge of some 

 of the wondrous works of his creation, to interpret 

 the characters of wisdom and of goodness with 

 which they are impressed, and to join our voice to 

 the general chorus which proclaims " His Might, 

 Majesty, and Dominion." From the same gracious 

 hand we also derive that unquenchable thirst for 

 knowledge, which this fleeting life must ever leave 

 unsatisfied ; those endowments of the moral sense, 

 with which the present constitution of the world so 

 ill accords ; and that innate desire of perfection 

 which our present frail condition is so inadequate 

 to fulfil. But it is not given to man to penetrate 

 into the counsels, or fathom the designs of Omni- 

 potence ; for in directing his views into futurity, 

 the feeble light of his reason is scattered and lost 

 in the vast abyss. Although we plainly discern 

 intention in every part of the creation, the grand 

 object of the whole is placed far above the scope 

 of our comprehension. It is impossible, however, 

 to conceive that this enormous expenditure of 

 power, this vast accumulation of contrivances and 

 of machinery, and this profusion of existence re- 

 sulting from them, can thus, from age to age, 

 be prodigally lavished, without some ulterior end. 

 Is Man, the favoured creature of nature's bounty, 

 " the paragon of animals," whose spirit holds 

 communion with celestial powers, formed but to 

 perish with the wreck of his bodily frame? Are 

 generations after generations of his race doomed 

 to follow in endless succession, rolling darkly down 

 the stream of time, and leaving no track in its 

 pathless ocean ? Are the operations of Almighty 

 power to end with the present scene ? May we 



