250 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



manency nor one naturally progressive ; but is 

 yet one absolutely necessary to make material 

 objects capable of being instruments and aids to 

 man ; and this is the condition of by far the 

 greater part of terrestrial things. The habitual 

 course of events with regard to motion and rest 

 is not the same for familiar moveable articles, as 

 it is for the parts of the mineral, or of the 

 vegetable world, when left to themselves; such 

 articles are in a condition far better adapted than 

 any of those other conditions would be, to their 

 place and purpose. Surely this shows us an 

 adaptation, an adjustment, of the constitution of 

 the material world to the nature of man. And 

 as the organization of plants cannot be conceived 

 otherwise than as having their life and growth 

 for its object, so we cannot conceive that friction 

 should be one of the leading agencies in the 

 world in which man is placed, without supposing 

 that it was intended to be of use when man 

 should walk and run, and build houses arid 

 ships, and bridges, and execute innumerable 

 other processes, all of which would be impossible, 

 admirably constituted as man is in other respects, 

 if friction did not exist. And believing, as we 

 conceive we cannot but believe, that the laws of 

 motion and rest were thus given with reference to 

 their ends, we perceive in this instance, as in 

 others, how wide and profound this reference is, 

 how simple in its means, how fertile in its conse- 

 quences, how effective in its details. 



