4 BOOK OF NATURE LAID 



and can from the creature trace an idea of the 

 Creator. A sense of religion, then, is the charac- 

 teristic peculiarity which decisively marks a separa- 

 tion between man and all other animals. 



In the view we are about to take of Nature, then, 

 it shall be our chief aim, while we expatiate on the 

 wonderful variety it presents in each department, to 

 endeavour to establish and strengthen this pre-emi- 

 nent characteristic of our species, and counteract 

 that tendency to infidelity which has of late, by the 

 labours of the wicked and designing, been rendered 

 too prevalent. 



Indeed the contemplation of the works of Nature 

 invariably leads to a consideration of the attributes of 

 the Creator. The subject is so replete with digni- 

 fied feelings, that w r e cannot help being surprised 

 that atheism should ever have had a teacher or a 

 convert. These infatuated men attempt to make 

 every thing subservient to their leasonings, and they 

 are unwilling to acknowledge that a superior mind 

 can have created the wonders around them. Their 

 favourite arguments against the intervention of Pro- 

 vidence lie in a reference to physical and moral 

 evils; such as pestilence, tempests, volcanoes, and 

 death. They have no pleasure in contemplating the 

 beneficent part of the works of Nature ; show them 

 a flower, and they will point out the worm which 

 consumes its bosom. It is by dwelling on scenes of 

 waste that they seek to make us converts to their 

 doctrine of annihilation; it is by making us bend 

 under the pressure of the evils of life, that they 



