NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 283 



II portion of some greater phenomenon, the rest of 

 wliicli was yet to be evolved. It therefore appears 

 that our system, though it may at first appear 

 at issue with other doctrines in esteem amongst man- 

 kind, tends to come into harmony with them, and even 

 to give them support. I would say, in conclusion, that, 

 even where the two above arguments may fail of effect, 

 there may yet be a faith derived from this view of nature 

 sufficient to sustain us under all sense of the imperfect 

 happiness, the calamities, the woes, and pains of this 

 sphere of being. For let us but fully and truly consider 

 what a system is here laid open to view, and we cannot 

 well doubt that we are in the hands of One who is both 

 able and wilUng to do us the most entire justice. And 

 in this faith we may well rest at ease, even though life 

 should have been to us but a protracted disease, or 

 though every hope we had built on the secular materials 

 within our reach were felt to be melting from our grasp. 

 Thinking of all the contingencies of this world as to be 

 in time melted into or lost in the greater system, to 

 which the present is only subsidiary, let us wait the end 

 with patience, and be of good cheer. 



