§ 32. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 58* 



such vanity and presumption. For my own part, feeling. 

 as I do, the most profound reverence, and the deepest 

 gratitude to the Eternal Being, who has given unto me this 

 reasoning intellect, however feeble it maybe; and believing 

 that the gratification and delight experienced in the con- 

 templation of the Wonders of Creation here, are but a 

 foretaste of that inexpressible felicity which, in a higher 

 state of existence, will be our portion hereafter, I cannot 

 but think that the minutest living atom, which the aided 

 eye of man is able to explore, is designed for its own pecu- 

 liar sphere of enjoyment, and is alike the object of His 

 -mercy and His care, as the most stupendous and exalted of 

 His creatures* 



" Le meme Dieu crea la mousse et rUnivers." 



In nothing, perhaps, are we more mistaken, than in our 

 estimate of the happiness enjoyed by other beings ; to 

 employ the beautiful simile of a distinguished author. — 

 rt As the moon plays upon the waves, and seems to our 

 eyes to favour with a peculiar beam one long track amidst 

 the waters, leaving the rest in comparative obscurity, yet 

 all the while she is no niggard in her lustre — for although the 

 rays that meet not our eyes, seem to us as though they were 

 not, yet she, with an equal and unfavouring loveliness, 

 mirrors herself on every wave : even so, perhaps, happiness 

 falls with the same power and brightness over the whole 

 expanse of being, although to our limited perceptions it 

 seems only to rest on those billows from which the rays are 

 reflected back upon our sight."* And if we admit, as all 

 must admit who for one moment consider the marvels which 

 Astronomy has unfolded to us, that there are countless 

 worlds around us inhabited by intelligences of whose nature 

 we can form no just conception, surely the discoveries of 

 Geology ought not to be rejected because they instruct us, 



:> Sir E. B. Lytton's " Eugene Aram." 



i 



