NOTICE. 



Thk series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is published under 

 the following circumstances : 



The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis Henrt, Earl of Bridge- 

 water, died in the month of February, 1829 ; and by his last Will and 

 Testament, bearing 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 farther 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 Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested 

 in the Creation; illustrating such work by all reasonable arguments, as for 

 instance, the variety and formation of God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, 

 and mineral kingdoms ; the efiect of digestion and thereby of conversion ; the 

 construction of the hand of man, and an injinite 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. 



The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq., requested 

 the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Bishop 

 of London, in determining upon the best mode of carrying into effect the in- 

 tentions of the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with the concurrence 

 of a nobleman immediately connected with the deceased, JMr. Davies Gilbert 

 appointed the following eight gentlemen to write separate Treatises on the 

 different branches of the subject here stated : 



THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. 



Professor of divinity in the cniversitt op Edinburgh. 

 on the power, wisdom and goodness of god as manifested in the adapta- 

 tion of external nature to the moral and intellectual constitu- 

 tion of man. 



