208 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



succession of past ages. We shall not dwell 

 upon any objections to this tenet which might 

 be drawn from our own conceptions, or from 

 what may be called metaphysical sources. Nor 

 shall we refer to the various considerations which 

 history, geology, and astronomical records sup- 

 ply, and which tend to show, not only that the 

 past duration of the present course of things is 

 finite, but that it is short, compared with such 

 periods as we have had to speak of. But we 

 may observe, that the doctrine of a resisting 

 medium once established, makes this imagination 

 untenable ; compels us to go back to the origin, 

 not only of the present course of the world, not 

 only of the earth, but of the solar system itself; 

 and thus sets us forth upon that path of research 

 into the series of past causation, where we obtain 

 no answer of which the meaning corresponds 

 to our questions, till we rest in the conclusion 

 of a most provident and most powerful Creating 

 Intelligence. 



It is related of Epicurus that when a boy, 

 reading with his preceptor these verses of Hesiod, 



Hroi jj,ev 7rpwnra Xaoe yevtr', avrap 

 Fat evpv^epvog iravTWv %og avfyaXeg aift 

 Aflavarwv, 



Eldest of beings, Chaos first arose, 



Thence Earth wide stretched, the steadfast seat of all 



The Immortals, 



the young scholar first betrayed his inquisitive 



