RESISTING MEDIUM. 201 



advances we have made in our knowledge of 

 nature. The smallness of the objects detected 

 by the microscope and of their parts ; the mul- 

 titude of the stars which the best telescopes of 

 modern times have discovered in the sky ; the 

 duration assigned to the globe of the earth by 

 geological investigation ; all these results require 

 for their probable expression, numbers, which so 

 far as we see, are on the same gigantic scale as 

 the number of years in which the solar system 

 will become entirely deranged. Such calcula- 

 tions depend in some degree on our relation to 

 the vast aggregate of the works of our Creator ; 

 and no person who is accustomed to meditate on 

 these subjects will be surprised that the numbers 

 which such an occasion requires should oppress 

 our comprehension. No one who has dwelt on 

 the thought of a universal Creator and Preserver, 

 will be surprised to find the conviction forced 

 upon the mind of every new train of speculation, 

 that viewed in reference to Him, our space is 

 a point, our time a moment, our millions a hand- 

 ful, our permanence a quick decay. 



Our knowledge of the vast periods, both geo- 

 logical and astronomical, of which we have 

 spoken, is most slight. It is in fact little more 

 than that such periods exist; that the surface 

 of the earth has, at wide intervals of time, under- 

 gone great changes in the disposition of land and 

 water, and in the forms of animal life ; and that 

 the motions of the heavenly bodies round the sun 



