FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 143 



and void ; and the heavens, and they had no light. 

 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and 

 all the hills moved lightly. 1 beheld, and, lo, 

 there was no man, and all the birds of the air 

 were fled." 



But if, with our spirits depressed, by the prospect 

 of so universal a scene of mutual struggles and 

 destruction, we listen again to the philosopher, 

 he will tell us that the ceaseless struggle of the 

 antagonist powers of the heavens prevents, instead 

 of causing disorder and confusion, that by the 

 powerful and mutual counteraction of these 

 mighty opponents, all the heavenly bodies of our 

 system are prevented from rushing to the centre, 

 or being driven, dispersed into their atoms, 

 beyond the Jlammantia mcenia mundi ; that thus 

 their annual and diurnal revolutions are main- 

 tained, that each observes its appointed course, 

 keeps its assigned station, and ministers to the 

 good and well-being of the whole system. If 

 then we turn our view again to the earth, and 

 take a nearer survey of things if we consider 

 the present tendency to multiply, beyond mea- 

 sure, of all things that have life, we shall soon 

 be convinced that, unless this tendency was 

 met by some check, the world of animated beings 

 would be perpetually encroaching upon each 

 other, and would finally perish for want of suffi- 

 cient food ; and that the partial evils inflicted 

 by one individual or one class upon another, to 

 borrow a term from the Political Economist, 



