NATURAL THEOLOGY. 315 



him to that which certainly is, — to the change of 

 the seasons. Now the constitution of animals sus- 

 ceptible of torpor bears a relation to winter simi- 

 lar to that which sleep bears to night. Against 

 not only the cold, but the want of food, which the 

 approach of winter induces, the Preserver of the 

 world has provided in many animals by migration, 

 in many others by torpor. As one example out 

 of a thousand, the bat, if it did not sleep through 

 the winter, must have starved ; as the moths and 

 flying insects upon which it feeds disappear. But 

 the transition from summer to winter carries us 

 into the very midst of physical astronomy, that is 

 to say, into the midst of those laws which govern 

 the solar system at least, and probably all the 

 heavenly bodies. 



