XVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
other feeds ripen in pericarpes, which open with 
elaftic force, and fiioot their feed to a very great 
diftance round about ; fome other feeds, as of the 
Moflfes and Fungi, are fo very minute as to be in- 
vifible, light as atoms, and thefe mixing with the 
air, are wafted all over the world. 
The animal creation alfo excites our admiration, 
and equally manifefts the almighty power, wifclom, 
and beneficence of the Supreme Creator and Sove- 
reign Lord of the univerfe ; fome in their vaft fize 
and ftrength, as the mammoth, the elephant, the 
whale, the lion, and alligator ; others in agility ; 
others in their beauty and elegance of colour, 
plumage, and rapidity of flight, having the faculty 
of moving and living in the air; others for their 
immediate and indifpenfable ufe and convenience 
to man, in furnifhing means for our clothing and 
fuftenance, and adminiftering to our help in the 
toils and labours of life : how wonderful is the me- 
chanifm of thefe finely formed felf-moving beings, 
how complicated their fyftem, yet what unerring 
uniformity prevails through every tribe and parti- 
cular fpecies ! the effedf we fee and contemplate, 
the caufe is inviflble, incomprehenfible ; how can 
it be otherwife ? when we cannot fee the end or 
origin of a nerve or vein, while the divifibility of 
matter cr fluid, is infinite. We admire the me- 
dian ifm of a watch, and the fabric of a piece of 
brocade, as being the production of art; thefe merit 
our admiration, and muft excite our efteem for the 
ingenious artift or modifier ; but nature is the work 
of God omnipotent ; and an elephant, nay even this 
world, is comparatively but a very minute part of 
his works. If then the vifible, the mechanical part 
of the animal creation, the mere material part, is 
fo admirably beautiful, harmonious, and incompre- 
henfible 3 
