CHANGES THAT TAKE PLACE IN NATURE. 221 
ground- — -the thrush feasts too, and all the poultry in the 
yard are running after chaffers, or chasing each other 
for the prize ; and thus this insect supplies in one state 
or another a general feast to many. 
Surrounded as we are by wonders of every kind, and 
existing only by a miraculous concurrence of events, 
admiration seems the natural avocation of our being; 
nor is it easy to pronounce amidst such a creation what 
is most wonderful. But few things appear more incom- 
prehensible than the constant production and reabsorp- 
tion of matter, impressed upon us even by these very 
dorrs. An animal falls to the ground and dies; myriads 
of creatures are now summoned by a call, by an impulse 
of which we have no perception, to remove it, and pre- 
pare it for a new combination ; chemical agencies, fer- 
mentation, and solution, immediately commence their 
actions to separate the parts, and in a short time, of all 
this great body, nothing remains but the framework or 
bones, perhaps a little hair or some wool, and all the 
rest is departed we know not whither ! Worms and in- 
sects have done their parts ; the earth has received a 
portion, and the rest, converted into gases, and exhalable 
matters, has dispersed all over the region, which, receiv- 
ed into vegetable circulation, is again separated and 
changed, becomes modified anew, and nourishes that 
which is to continue the future generations of life. The 
petal of the rose ; the pulp of the peach ; the azure 
and the gold on the wing of the insect ; all the various 
productions of the animal and vegetable world ; the 
very salts and compounds of the soil, are but the changes 
some other matters have undergone, which have circu- 
lated through innumerable channels since the first pro- 
duction of all things, and no particle been lost ; bearing 
in mind this assured truth, that all these combinations 
have not been effected by chance or peculiarity of cir- 
cumstances, but by the predetermination of an Almighty 
Intelligence, who sees the station, progress, and final 
destination of an atom, what an infinity of power and 
intellective spirit does this point out ! an omnipotence, 
which the bodied minds of us poor creatures cannot 
T 2 
