NOTICE. 
The series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is 
published under the following circumstances : 
The Right Honourable and Reverend Francis 
Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, died in the month of 
February, 1829 ; and by his last Will and Testament, bear- 
ing date the 25th of February, 1825, he directed certain 
Trustees therein named to invest in the public funds the 
sum of Eight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with 
the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal 
of the President, for the time being, of tlic Royal Society 
of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated 
by him. The Testator further directed, that the person or 
persons selected by the said President should be appointed 
to write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work 
On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- 
fested in the Creation ; illustrating such work by all reason- 
able arguments, as for instance the variety and formation of 
God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and mineral king- 
doms ; the eJJ'ect of digestion, and thereby of conversion ; 
the construclion of the hand of man, and an infinite variety 
of other arguments; as also by discoveries ancient and 
modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature. 
He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale 
of the works so published should be paid to the authors of 
the works. 
