82 



What produces magnetism, galvanism and electricity ? appar- 

 ently lifeless masses of matter— iron, silver, zinc, glass. It ap- 

 pears, prima facie, absurd to think that such bodies can, by a 

 proper agency of the materials which compose them, produce any 

 effect whatever, much less such powerful ones as those they do 

 actually produce. Hence we are driven to the necessity of con- 

 cluding that there is life in them, and that it is, by the combined 

 agency of the particles of which (hey are composed, that such ef- 

 fects are produced. 



While those bodies of matter are presented as absolutely dead 

 masses, they contain the most active materials within them, work- 

 ing miracles as incapable of solution as the mysteries of eternity. 



Under such a view of the constitution of (he material creation, 

 I cannot conceive that any substantial objection can be brought 

 against the theory I have advanced, respecting the functions of 



But whether this theory be well sustained or not, it excites re- 

 flections which crowd so thick on the mind that language is inca- 

 pable of giving them utterance. If it be true that nothing is cre- 

 ated in vain, or to be mere inert, inoperative matter ; if it be true 

 that every thing acting as a cause, produces as great a number of 

 effects as, from a constitution designed for the greatest possible 

 good, it is capable of producing ; and if we are warranted in say- 

 mg that as far as our discoveries extend there appears to be a re- 

 ciprocity of salutary effects and mutual services between all the 

 agencies of material substances, may we not view the creation and 

 every organized body it contains, nay, every imperceptible as well 

 as perceptible atom belonging to it, as in a state of ceaseless ac- 

 tivity, all engaged in executing the benevolent purposes of the 

 Governor of the universe. It is true that many of them appear to 

 be dormant, or perfectly lifeless until the appropriate exciting 

 means rouse them into action, and then they exhibit their tremen- 

 dous powers. Witness the degree of combustion, almost beyond 

 credibility, produced by galvanism, and the destruction made by 

 a stroke of lightning ; and yet we know that all these have their 

 •alutary effects and are intended for the wisest purposes. 



There is a relation between all, even the most distant worlds 

 that float in the immensity of space, as well as between the parti 

 of which they are composed. How wonderfully do those mysteri- 

 oua powera, the centrifugal and centripetal forces, control every 



