MASS OF THE EARTH. 51 



known central portions of the earth, which are 

 placed far beyond the reach of the miner and 

 the geologist, and of which man will probably 

 never know anything directly, are not to be con- 

 sidered as quite disconnected with us, as deposits 

 of useless lumber without effect or purpose. We 

 feel their influence on every step we take and on 

 every breath we draw ; and the powers we pos- 

 sess, and the comforts we enjoy would be unpro- 

 fitable to us, if they had not been prepared with 

 a reference to those as well as to the near and 

 visible portions of the earth's mass. 



The arbitrary quantity, therefore, of which we 

 have been treating, the intensity of the force of 

 gravity, appears to have been taken account of, 

 in establishing the laws of those forces by which 

 the processes of vegetable and animal life are 

 carried on. And this leads us inevitably, we 

 conceive, to the belief of a supreme contriving 

 mind, by which these laws were thus devised and 

 thus established. 



