308 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



CONCLUSION. 



" ILLUSTRATIONS of the power, wisdom, and good- 

 ness of the Creator," says a late author, " might be 

 produced from the works of nature without end ; 

 they meet us at every turn ; and to whatever depart- 

 ment our inquiries are directed, they flow in upon 

 us in overwhelming abundance. It is well worthy 

 of remark, indeed, as showing the depth and solidity 

 of the foundation on which rests the existence of a 

 supreme, intelligent, and beneficent First Cause, that 

 the further we push our discoveries, the more clearly 

 are the divine perfections exhibited. It is not merely 

 true, that on a superficial view we perceive the 

 necessity of believing that a limited and changing 

 world, such as that in which we dwell, could neither 

 exist without being produced, nor be the author of 

 its own existence ; and that there must therefore be, 

 beyond the range of our senses, an independent 

 and uncreated Essence, without beginning, without 

 bounds, incapable of change, intelligent, ever active, 

 all pervading; but it is also certain that these prima 

 facie views, as they may be called, are not only uri- 

 contradicted, but fully established by the most minute 

 survey of the objects within the sphere of our vision; 

 so that he who penetrates the deepest into the secrets 

 of nature, only multiplies proofs of that most sub- 

 lime and most animating truth, that ' Verily there is 

 a God, who made and rules the universe*.' J1 



* Bushman's Introduction to the Study of Nature. London* 

 1834. 



