These things I know well ; but who, I inquire, is he that will pre- 

 sume that the smallest, the lowest of God's works, are so insig- 

 nificant, so uninteresting, as to merit our contempt, or even our 

 neglect ? Vv iiat is it, I ask, which renders us so superior to the 

 brute creation, — what, but our glorious intellectuality ? — that 

 generous endowment which enables us to understand and appre- 

 ciate the works of the Creator. The low link it forms in the 

 chain of the creation cannot render it unimportant, for noihmg is 

 low which God has made, nor uninteresting; for in these very 

 bumble links we can frequently the more plainly trace the affinities 

 and analogies of link with link, of individuality to generality ; and 

 thus testing the beautiful harmony and unity which pervade the 

 whole. Snap asunder these lower links, these neglected objects, 

 and what becomes of the chain? Wheie will be its unity ? The 

 works of the Creator are a whole: every individual being a link in 

 that unity, every one is therefore necessary for its harmony, and 

 none are so exalted as to be independent of the others ; nor are there 

 any so debased as not to claim kindred and affinity with all and with 

 each. As to their remoteness from cur every-day contact, I know 

 that there are, " far in the sunless Tetreats of the ocean, fair flowers 

 no mortal eye may see." I know, too, that " the works of God are 

 many and wondrous, and they seek them out who delighteth there- 

 in." And who is he that will acknowledge he does not delight 

 therein ! It is true that the learned scholar, in order to impress 

 upon the minds of his pupils, directs their astonished intellect to 

 the starry firmament, to prove to them the infinity of creation. We 

 feel no less the reverential admiration excited by the contemplation 

 of the mighty worlds, ever revolving, never tiring, and which per- 

 petually proclaim, "The hand that made us is Divine;" but we 

 do maintain that these lesser objects, — these earthly things, — how- 

 ever minute to our simple minds, as loudly proclaim the Divine 

 power that formed them, the perfection and infinity of creation, as 

 do those vastly distant bodies which our minds can comprehend 

 only through analogy and hypothesis, whilst these earthly particles 

 can be taken in the very hollow of one's hand, and there demon- 

 strated. Is there any who doubt? Let such a one lake a look 

 through a good microscope, and behold the courses of the orbs of 

 sap in their circulation ; or at the motion of the particles of blood 

 through the animal system, even in its lowest organism, — and his 

 head will bow in humility in- contemplating the beauty, harmony, 



