NATURAL THEOLOGY. V 



they would still preserve the same outward appear- 

 ance. It is only, in any case, the existence of intelli- 

 gent acts that proves the existence of an intelligent 

 principle. And shall the work evince the workman 

 in every instance but where the work is an exhibition 

 of infinite contrivance ? Must he be pronounced in- 

 telligent, who has written a book concerning the won- 

 ders of nature, and those wonders themselves not be 

 equal to sustain a similar conclusion 1 What incredi- 

 ble blindness, to have suggested such a presumptuous 

 absurdity ! 



T. If we should see the most superb palace in the 

 world, or the most magnificent production of human 

 art, should we not be delighted and amazed ? Why 

 then, are we not daily and hourly filled with raptu- 

 rous emotions, in contemplating that infinitely nobler 

 spectacle which is continually open to our inspection ? 



A. " The miracles of nature are exposed to our 

 eye, (as a celebrated French writer beautifully ex- 

 presses it), long before we have reason enough to de- 

 rive any light from them. If we entered the world, 

 with the same reason which a spectator carries with 

 him to an opera, the first time he enters a theatre, — 

 and if the curtain of the universe, if we may so term 

 it, were to be rapidly drawn up, struck with the gran- 

 deur of every thing which we saw, and all the obvi- 

 ous contrivances exhibited, we should not be capable 

 of refusing our homage to the Eternal Power, which 

 had prepared for us such a spectacle." But we do 

 not think of marvelling at objects we have seen for 



