NATURAL THEOLOGY. 175 



filaments of the feather of the humming-bird. 

 We have proof, not only of both these works pro- 

 ceeding from an intelligent agent, but of their 

 proceeding from the same agent : for, in the first 

 place, we can trace an identity of plan, a con- 

 nexion of system, from Saturn to our ow^n globe ; 

 and when arrived upon our globe, we can, in the 

 second place, pursue the connexion through all 

 the organized, especially the animated, bodies 

 which it supports. We can observe marks of a 

 common relation, as w^ell to one another, as to the 

 elements of which their habitation is composed. 

 Therefore one mind hath planned, or at least hath 

 prescribed, a general plan for all these produc- 

 tions. One Being has been concerned in all. 



Under this stupendous Being we live. Our 

 happiness, our existence, is in his hand. All we 

 expect must come from him. Nor ought we to 

 feel our situation insecure. In every nature, and 

 in every portion of nature, which we can descry, 

 we find attention bestowed upon even the mi- 

 nutest parts. The hinges in the wings of an ear- 

 wig, and the joints of its antennas, are as highly 

 wrought, as if the Creator had had nothing else to 

 finish. We see no signs of diminution of care by 

 multiplicity of objects, or of distraction of thought 

 by variety. We have no reason to fear, therefore, 

 our being forgotten, or overlooked, or neglected.^" 



*> There is assuredly nothing that more tends to absorb our 

 whole faculties in devout admiration than the contemplation of 

 that universal power and pervading skill which is here remarked 



