GENERAL VIEW OF NATTJKE. 
233 
LECTURE XLIY. 
GENERAL YIEW OF NATURE — ORGANIZED AND INORGANIZED BODIE&— * 
CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS. 
365. Having considered the vegetable kingdom under its 
various aspects, it may be proper before closing our course of 
. botanical study to take a general view of that external world 
of matter, of which the part we have examined extended and 
diversified as it is, constitutes but a very small portion. The 
science we have been investigating is a branch of Natural Sei- 
ence. The study of nature presents in a lively and forcible 
manner the power and wisdom of the Creator, and ofiers to the 
enlightened mind a never-failing source of the most pure and 
refined enjoyment. Those who know nothing of this source ot 
happiness cannot appreciate its value ; they may ask the iise of 
studying into the nature of objects without reference to the en- 
joyment of the senses, or to personal gain or honor. 
366. Naturalists to the great discredit of science have some- 
times shown an unhappy tendency to skepticism ; enabled to 
comprehend some of the great operations of nature, they have 
presumed to set up their own reason against the revelation of 
God, and impiously refused to believe any thing which could 
not be explained according to the principles of human science. 
Searching into the elements which compose the human body, 
and observing the dispersion of the same and their incorpora- 
tion into other substances, they have afiirmed that it was " a 
thing impossible for God to raise the dead." Well might we, 
in addressing such a philosopher, say, with the Apostle, "Thou 
fool !" Cannot He who formed all things of nothing, reanimate 
the sleeping dust, and reunite the spirit to its own body? 
Happily, this melancholy perversion of human learning seems 
passing away, and we now see many of the enlightened inves- 
tigators of the principles of science, among the humble disciples 
of Jesus. 
367. By the word Nature^ derived from a term signifying 
horn ov produced^ in a general sense we mean all the works of 
God. Using a figure of speech called metonomy^ we often put 
the effect for the cause ; as when we speak of the " works of 
nature," meaning what the Almighty has brought forth : or we 
often mean by nature the Deity himself ; as when we say that 
" nature produces plants and animals." 
368. With respect to the heavenly hodies which manifest 
themselves to us with so much magnificence, we know them to 
3R5. Study of nature.— 3fi6. Naturalists inclined to skepticism.— ?67. Definition of nature.— 363, Tb« 
heaven.y oodles. 
