PINAL CAUSES. 19 



succession! Throughout the whole series of terrestrial be- 

 ings, what studied arrangements, what preconcerted adapta- 

 tions, what multiplied evidences of intention, what signal 

 proofs of beneficent design exist to attract our notice, to ex- 

 cite our curiosity, and to animate our inquiries. Splendid 

 as are the monuments of divine power and wisdom displayed 

 throughout the firmament, in objects fitted by their stupen- 

 dous magnitude to impress the imagination and overpower 

 us by their awful grandeur, not less impressive, nor less re- 

 plete with wonder, are the manifestations of those attributes 

 in the minuter portions of nature, which are more on a 

 level with our senses, and more within the reach of our 

 comprehension. The modern improvements of optical 

 science, which have expanded our prospects into the more 

 distant regions of the universe, have likewise brought with- 

 in our range of vision the more diminutive objects of crea- 

 tion, and have revealed to us many of the secrets of their 

 structure and arrangement. But, farther, our reason tells 

 us that, from the infinite divisibility of space, there still exist 

 worlds far removed from the cognizance of every human 

 sense, however assisted by the utmost refinements of art; 

 worlds occupied by the elementary corpuscles of matter, 

 composing, by their various configurations, systems upon 

 systems, and comprising endless diversities of motions, of 

 complicated changes, and of widely extended series of 

 causes and effects, destined for ever to remain invisible to 

 human eyes, and inscrutable to human science. 



Thus, in whatever field we pursue our inquiries, we are 

 sure to arrive at boundaries within which our powers are 

 circumscribed. Infinity meets us in every direction, whe- 

 ther in the ascending or descending scale of magnitude; and 

 we feel the impotence of our utmost efforts to fathom the 

 depths of creation, or to form any adequate conception of 

 that supreme and Dominant Intelligence, which compre- 

 hends the whole chain of being extending from that which 

 is infinitely small to that which is infinitely great. 



It is incumbent on us, before ene;aging in a study of such 



