NOTICE. 



The series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is pub- 

 lished under the followino; circumstances: 



The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis Henry, 

 Earl of Bridgewater, died in the month of February, 1829; 

 and by his last Will and Testament, bearing date the 25th of 

 February, 1825, he directed certain Trustees therein named to 

 invest in the public funds the sum of Eight thousand pounds 

 sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be 

 held at the disposal of the President, for the time being, of the 

 Royal Society of London, to be paid to the person or persons no- 

 minated by him. The Testator farther directed, that the person 

 or persons selected by the said President should be appointed to 

 write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work On the 

 Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the 

 Creation; illustrating such loork by all reasonable arguments, as 

 for instance the variety and formation of God's creatures in the 

 animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms,- the effect of digestion, 

 and thereby of conversion; the construction of the hand of man, 

 and an infinite variety of other arguments; as also by discove- 

 ries ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent 

 of literature. He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from 

 the sale of the works so publislied siiould be paid to the authors 

 of the works. 



The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq. 

 requested the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canter- 



