OBJECT. 3 



for most persons will allowthat, however imperfect 

 may be the knowledge of a Supreme Intelligence 

 which we gather from the contemplation of the 

 natural world, it is still of most essential use and 

 value. And our purpose on this occasion is, not 

 to show that Natural Theology is a perfect and 

 satisfactory scheme, but to bring up our Natural 

 Theology to the point of view in which it may 

 be contemplated by the aid of our Natural Phi- 

 losophy. 



Now the peculiar point of view which at present 

 belongs to Natural Philosophy, and especially to 

 the departments of it which have been most suc- 

 cessfully cultivated, is, that nature, so far as it is 

 an object of scientific research, is a collection of 

 facts governed by laws : our knowledge of nature 

 is our knowledge of laws ; of laws of operation and 

 connexion, of laws of succession and co-existence, 

 among the various elements and appearances 

 around us. And it must therefore here be our aim 

 to show how this view of the universe falls in with 

 our conception of the Divine Author, by whom 

 we hold the universe to be made and governed. 



Nature acts by general laws ; that is, the occur- 

 rences of the world in which we find ourselves, 

 result from causes which operate according to 

 fixed and constant rules. The succession of days, 

 and seasons, and years, is produced by the mo- 

 tions of the earth ; and these again are governed 

 by the attraction of the sun, a force which 



