STUDY OF NATURE. 89 



These familiar instances have been noticed in order 

 to point out how apt we are to miss the lesson that 

 nature would give, and break down the fabric of phi- 

 losophy, by giving a purpose and a prescience of the 

 future to that which cannot reason. Vapour, liquid or 

 solid, organized or unorganized, plant or animal, of a 

 day's duration or of a century's, there is but one law 

 for matter, and that is to be modified to the circum- 

 stances in which it is placed : it is the province of 

 man to come in with the higher attribute his Maker 

 has given him, and by a careful observation of the cir- 

 cumstances and the modification that are found toge- 

 ther, he may infer the one from the other ; or, by an 

 imitation of the circumstances, copy the result in as far 

 as art can imitate nature, or transfer the workings of 

 nature from place to place, by artificial soil, artificial 

 warmth, and artificial culture. 



That is the proper end and object of the philosophy 

 and the history of nature, we say the philosophy and 

 the history, for each is imperfect and unavailing without 

 the other ; and when we heajr of wisdom and forethought 

 imputed to the material being, it is only a new species 

 of idolatry, a robbing of the Almighty for the sake of 

 a dumb animal instead of a dumb idol, an exaltation 

 of a part, and a very little part, of His works, to a 

 participation of the glory of Him who sitteth upon the 

 zone of the universe, and in whose sight, worlds and 

 their myriads of productions are but as " the small dust 

 of the balance." 



