426 PROOFS OF DESIGN 



support of terrestrial animals or vegetables,) and transmit- 

 tinjT them in genial showers to scatter fertility over the 

 earth, and maintain the never-failing reservoirs of those 

 springs and rivers by which they are again returned to mix 

 with their parent ocean ; in all these circumstances we find 

 such evidence of nicely balanced adaptation of means to 

 ends, of wise foresight, and benevolent intention, and infinite 

 power, that he must be blind indeed, who refuses to recog- 

 nise in them proofs of the most exalted attributes of the 

 Creator."* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Proofs of Design in the Structure and Composition of 

 unorganized Mineral Bodies. 



Much of the physical histo^y of the compound forms of 

 unorganized mineral bodies, has been anticipated in the con- 

 siderations given in our early chapters to the unstratified and 

 crystalline rocks. It remains, only to say a few words re- 

 specting the simple minerals that form the ingredients of 

 these rocks, and the elementary bodies of which they are 

 composed.f 



" In crossing a heath," (says Paley,) " suppose I pitched 

 my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came 



* Buckland, Tnaug'. Lecture, p. 13. 



■j- The term simple mineral is applied not only to uncombined mineral 

 substances, which are rare in Nature, such as pure native gold or silver, but 

 also to all kinds of compound mineral bodies that present a regular crystal- 

 line structm-e, accompanied by definite proportions of their chemical ingre- 

 dients. The difference between a simple mineral and a simple substance 

 may be illustrated by the case of calcareous spar, or crystallized carbonate 

 of lime. I'he ultimate elements, viz. Calcium, Oxygen, and Carbon, are 

 simple substances; the crystalline compound resulting from the union of these 

 elements, in certain definite proportions, forms a simple mineral, called Car- 

 bonate of lime. The total number of simple minerals hitherto ascertained 

 according to Berzelius is nearly six hundred, that of simple substances, or 

 elementary principles, is fifty-fooi*. 



