NOTICE. 



The series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is 

 published under the following circumstances : 



The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis 

 Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, died in the month of 

 February, 1829 ; and by his last Will and Testament, bear- 

 ing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain 

 Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the 

 sum of Eight thousand pounds sterling ; this sum, with 

 the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal 

 of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society 

 of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated 

 by him. The Testator further directed, that the person or 

 persons selected by the said President should be appointed 

 to write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work 

 On the Poiver, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- 

 fested in the Creation ; illnstrating such tvork by all reason- 

 able arguments, as for instance the variety and formation of 

 God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kinor- 



' O ' ft 



doms ; the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion ; 

 the construction of the hand of man, and an infnite variety 

 of other arguments; as also by discoveries ancient and 

 modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature. 

 He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale 

 of the works so published should be paid to the authors of 

 the works. 



