OBJECT. O 



be expected to appear in the constitution and 

 combination of those fundamental regulations by 

 which the course of nature is brought about, and 

 made to be what it is. 



If a man were, by some extraordinary event, 

 to find himself in a remote and unknown country, 

 so entirely strange to him that he did not know 

 whether there existed in it any law or govern- 

 ment at all ; he might in no long time ascertain 

 whether the inhabitants were controlled by any 

 superintending authority ; and with a little atten- 

 tion he might determine also whether such autho- 

 rity were exercised with a prudent care for the 

 happiness and well being of its subjects, or 

 without any regard and fitness to such ends ; 

 whether the country were governed by laws at 

 all, and whether the laws were good. And 

 according to the laws which he thus found pre- 

 vailing, he would judge of the sagacity, and the 

 purposes of the legislative power. 



By observing the laws of the material universe 

 and their operation, we may hope, in a somewhat 

 similar manner, to be able to direct. our judg- 

 ment concerning the government of the universe : 

 concerning the mode in which the elements are 

 regulated and controlled, their effects combined 

 and balanced. And the general tendency of the 

 results thus produced may discover to us some- 

 thing of the character of the power which has 

 legislated for the material world. 



