PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION, 



I PROBABLY never should have ventured to 

 engage in the composition and publication of a 

 work like the present, had not that task been 

 assigned me by my nomination as one of the 

 writers of the series of Bridgewater Treatises, 

 and had I not deeply felt the honour done me 

 by that appointment, as well as the importance 

 of the duty which it imposed. The hope, in 

 which I have indulged, that mv labours mio-ht 

 eventually be useful, has been my chief sup- 

 port in this arduous undertaking ; the progress 

 of which has throughout been seriously im- 

 peded by the various interruptions incident to 

 my profession, by long protracted anxieties 

 and afflictions, and by the almost overwhelming 

 pressure of domestic calamity. 



The object of this treatise is to enforce the 

 great truths of Natural Theology, l^y adducing 



