STUDY OF NATURE. O 



To speak still more explicitly : since all being reposes 

 on the One Great Being, who originally created and ever 

 sustains it, to work his will, the whole history of nature 

 may well be expected to transcend our comprehension : 

 yet that history, whether contemplated in reference to 

 design or execution, is but one picture of wonder, of 

 sublimity, of beauty, and especially 01 wise contrivance, 

 the principal features of which it is delightful to trace. 

 Whether we succeed or not in disclosing the hidden 

 springs of all that is so exquisite, the most instructive 

 comparisons are suggested. Thus we soon learn that 

 no workman, however expert, can ever, in point of 

 adaptation, either simple or elaborate, come near to the 

 contrivances of the eye, of the ear, or of the joints, 

 muscles, valves, which anatomy presents to our contem- 

 plation ; and that no human wisdom can ever reach the 

 appropriation of means to ends, exhibited by instinct ; 

 that a spider, a silkworm, a mole, a bee, or an ant, may 

 confute an atheist ; that the beaver evinces skill sur- 

 passing that of any human architect ; that a muscle with 

 its cable and anchor may excite more reasonable wonder 

 than a ship. And, with regard to the heavenly bodies 

 themselves, we feel that it is not their magnitude, bril- 

 liancy, beauty, or the unbroken order of their revolu- 

 tions, that excites our highest admiration, but the 

 persuasion that even they, both in their stations and 

 their motions, are made subservient to human good; 

 while all of them are so many irresistible witnesses of 

 the sustaining providence of the GREAT SUPREME. 



Let the works of nature, then, as well as the works of 

 art, while they call forth your admiration, call forth, 

 also, a desire to explore them, and thus tend to exer- 

 cise and improve the habit of steady and successful 



