THE EARTHi 271 



creature, endued with powers imitative of those residing in the 

 Deity. He is thrown into a world that stands in need of his 

 help ; and has been granted a power of producing harmony from 

 partial confusion. 



If, therefore, we consider the earth as allotted for our habita- 

 tion, we shall find that much has been given us to enjoy, and 

 much to amend ; that we have ample reasons for our gratitude, 

 and still more for our industry. In those great outlines of 

 nature, to which art cannot reach, and where our greatest efforts 

 must have been ineffectual, God himself has finished these with 

 amazing grandeur and beauty. Our beneficent Father has con- 

 sidered those parts of nature as peculiarly his own ; as parts 

 which no creature could have skill or strength to amend : and 

 therefore made them incapable of alteration, or of more perfect 

 regularity. The heavens and the firmament show the wisdom 

 and the glory of the workman. Astronomers, who are best 

 skilled in the symmetry of systems, can find nothing there that 

 they can alter for the better. God made these perfect, because 

 no subordinate being could correct their defects. 



When, therefore, we survey nature on this side, nothing can 

 be more splendid, more correct, or amazing. We there behold 

 a Deity residing in the midst of a universe, infinitely extended 

 every way, animating all, and cheering the vacuity with his pre- 

 sence ! We behold an immense and shapeless mass of matter, 

 formed into worlds by his power, and dispersed at intervals, to 

 which even the imagination cannot travel ! In this great theatre 

 of his glory, a thousand suns, like our own, animate their respec- 

 tive systems, appearing and vanishing at Divine command. We 

 behold our own bright luminary fixed in the centre of its system, 

 wheeling its planets in times proportioned to their distances, 

 and at once dispensing light, heat, and action. The earth also 

 IS seen with its two-fold motion ; producing, by the one, the 

 change of seasons ; and by the other, the grateful vicissitudes of 

 day and night. With what silent magnificence is all this per- 

 formed ! with what seeming ease ! The works of art are exert- 

 ed with interrupted force ; and their noisy progress discovers the 

 obstructions they receive : but the earth, with a silent steady 

 rotation, successively presents every part of its bosom to the 

 sun ; at once imbibing nourishment and light from that parent 

 of vegetation and fertility. 



