HARMONY OF NATURE. 109 



globe nearly one hundred thousand miles in dia- 

 meter, or fourteen hundred times as large as our 

 earth, more easily than we can lead a lamb ; yet 

 it is so pliant harmonizes so well with all the 

 other powers of nature, that instead of hindering 

 any thing, it promotes every thing. 



The unity of purpose with which, even things 

 which to our observation, when we think of them 

 singly, would appear to be of the most opposite 

 character, work in nature, is one of the most 

 delightful rewards of observing them in their 

 combinations. The sun, the moon, and the pla- 

 nets, all work together in producing days and 

 years ; so that all the living creatures, vegetable 

 and animal, may have their due times and seasons 

 of activity and repose. The night restores from 

 the fatigue of the past day, and tunes all the 

 powers of nature for the day which is to come. 

 The winter howls in storms, and the spring is in- 

 constant with sunshine and showers, only that 

 the summer may bloom in splendour, and the 

 autumn ripen the seeds of young life for the com- 

 ing year. 



Of all those appearances, which, blending to- 

 gether, produce so much beauty, and beauty so 

 constantly varying, and yet so constant in its suc- 

 cession, that it flows on in one unbroken stream, 

 and which, as we observe it, receives, in our 

 knowledge of it, an increase every moment, just as 

 a river gains a rill from every dell that it passes, we 

 cannot say that any one is the cause of anyother. 

 When we push our observation of them, and our 

 reflection on them, as far as human knowledge can 

 go, we find that they all equally demand causes ; 

 and that nothing but AN UNIVERSAL CAUSE could 



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