Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION. 



analogical arguments. In man, who is called 

 a microcosm, or world in miniature, there is 

 as incessant a return of the blood to the heart 

 in a negative state by one set of vessels, as 

 there is an issue of it in a positive state by 

 another. The lungs also inspire the air in one 

 state, and expire it in another : and by this 

 alternate flux and reflux life is maintained ; 

 but suspend it beyond a certain period and 

 death is the result. Again, the rivers are con- 

 stantly discharging their waters into the sea by 

 one channel and receiving them back again by 

 another. Plants likewise, and animals, derive 

 their nutriment from the earth and from the 

 heavens, and under other forms return it again 

 to the sources from which it flowed. So that 

 it seems to be a general law that where there 

 is an efflux there must also be an influx. 



3. The Firmament. The proper transla- 

 tion of the word, which our version, after the 

 septuagint, renders firmament, is the expan- 

 sion. And God said, Let there be an expan- 

 sion, and let it divide the waters, &c. The 

 cause of expansion is heat, which naturally 

 divides and separates that in which it acts ; as 

 we see in the case of evaporation and the as- 

 cent of steam : and not only this, but the 



