300 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



their proper places ; and -the truth of the happy 

 conjecture seems to flash upon us from every 

 part of the inscription. 



The discovery of laws of nature, truly and 

 satisfactorily connecting and explaining pheno- 

 mena, of which, before, the connexion and 

 causes had been unknown, displays much of a 

 similar process, of obscurity succeeded by evi- 

 dence, of effort and perplexity followed by con- 

 viction and repose. The innumerable conjec- 

 tures and failures, the glimpses of light perpe- 

 tually opening and as often clouded over, by 

 which Kepler was tantalized, the unwearied 

 perseverance and inexhaustible ingenuity which 

 he exercised, while seeking for the laws which 

 he finally discovered, are, thanks to his commu- 

 nicative disposition, curiously exhibited in his 

 works, and have been narrated by his biogra- 

 phers ; and such efforts and alternations, modified 

 by character and circumstances, must generally 

 precede the detection of any of the wider laws 

 and dependencies by which the events of the 

 universe are regulated. We may readily conceive 

 the satisfaction and delight with which, after 

 this perplexity and struggle, the discoverer finds 

 himself in light and tranquillity ; able to look at 

 the province of nature which has been the sub- 

 ject of his study, and to read there an intelligible 

 connexion, a sufficing reason, which no one be- 

 fore him had understood or apprehended. 



