CHANGES THAT TAKE PLACE IN NATURE. 221 



ground the thrush feasts too, and all the poultry in the 

 yard are running after chaffers, or chasing each other 

 for the prize ; and thus this insect supplies in one state 

 or another a general feast to many. 



Surrounded as we are by wonders of every kind, and 

 existing only by a miraculous concurrence of events, 

 admiration seems the natural avocation of our being; 

 nor is it easy to pronounce amidst such a creation what 

 is most wonderful. But few things appear more incom- 

 prehensible than the constant production and reabsorp- 

 tion of matter, impressed upon us even by these very 

 dorrs. An animal falls to the ground and dies ; myriads 

 of creatures are now summoned by a call, by an impulse 

 of which we have no perception, to remove it, and pre- 

 pare it for a new combination ; chemical agencies, fer- 

 mentation, and solution, immediately commence their 

 actions to separate the parts, and in a short time, of all 

 this great body, nothing remains but the framework or 

 bones, perhaps a little hair or some wool, and all the 

 i-est is departed we know not whither ! Worms and in- 

 sects have done their parts ; the earth has received a 

 portion, and the rest, converted into gases, and exhalable 

 matters, has dispersed all over the region, which, receiv- 

 ed into vegetable circulation, is again separated and 

 changed, becomes modified anew, and nourishes that 

 which is to continue the future generations of life. The 

 petal of the rose ; the pulp of the peach ; the azure 

 and the gold on the wing of the insect ; all the various 

 productions of the animal and vegetable world ; the 

 very salts and compounds of the soil, are but the changes 

 some other matters have undergone, which have circu- 

 lated through innumerable channels since the first pro- 

 duction of all things, and no particle been lost ; bearing 

 in mind this assured truth, that all these combinations 

 have not been effected by chance or peculiarity of cir- 

 cumstances, but by the predetermination of an Almighty 

 Intelligence, who sees the station, progress, and final 

 destination of an atom, what an infinity of power and 

 intellective spirit does this point out ! an omnipotence, 

 which the bodied minds of us poor creatures cannot 

 T2 



