NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



159 



stance with which it could be done in safety. He has 

 no acquaintance with any such agent, that alone ex- 

 cepted which is found in the living animal. 



B. What a succession of wise and benevolent 

 provisions ! It is well we have adopted some me- 

 thodical view of the animal structure ; for otherwise 

 it would have been impossible to have remembered a 

 hundredth part of all these wonderful facts. So many 

 were unknown to me, that I am sure I shall always in 

 future entertain a stronger sense of the power in which 

 we live, and move, and have our being. 



T. You may deem it an inestimable acquisition, 

 if, by the attention you have given to this subject, 

 you are impressed with but one additional evidence of 

 the wisdom and goodness of our adorable Creator. 

 Any study that should have this effect — to cultivate 

 a single conviction of his agency — is surely the no- 

 blest to which our minds can be directed. " In ex- 

 plaining these things," says an ancient Greek physi- 

 cian, " I esteem myself as composing a solemn hymn 

 to the great Architect of our bodily frame ; in which, 

 I think, there is more true piety, than in sacrificing 

 hecatombs of oxen, or in burning the most Costly per- 

 fumes." 



But to finish our survey of the apparatus which re- 

 lates to nourishing the body. 



A. After the food has been brought into a proper 

 state by the chemistry which nature has provided in 

 the stomach ; this organ, by a tremulous, undulating 

 motion, empties its contents thus altered, into another 

 passage, leading from the stomach ; where another 



