284 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



feel secure, so far as analogy can secure us, that 

 the mere multitude of created objects cannot 

 remove us from the government and superin- 

 tendence of the Creator. 



3. We may observe further, that, vast as are 

 the parts and proportions of the universe, we still 

 appear to be able to perceive that it is finite ; the 

 subordination of magnitudes and numbers and 

 classes appears to have its limits. Thus, for 

 anything which we can discover, the sun is 

 the largest body in the universe; and at any 

 rate, bodies of the order of the sun are the 

 largest of which we have any evidence : we 

 know of no substances denser than gold and 

 platinum, and it is improbable that any denser, 

 or at least much denser, should ever be detected : 

 the largest animals which exist in the sea and 

 on the earth are almost certainly known to 

 us. We may venture also to say, that the 

 smallest animals which possess in their struc- 

 ture a clear analogy with larger ones, have been 

 already seen. Many of the animals which the 

 microscope detects, are as complete and complex 

 in their organization as those of larger size : but 

 beyond a certain point, they appear, as they 

 become more minute, to be reduced to a homo- 

 geneity and simplicity of composition which 

 almost excludes them from the domain of animal 

 life. The smallest microscopical objects which 

 can be supposed to be organic, are points,* or 



* Monas, Muller. Cuvier. 



