employed in the constitution of the universe. The argument is progressive; it is not merely co-extensive with our knowledge, but extending with it. The opinion is not only justifiable, but philosophical, that, notwithstanding the comprehensive provisions with which we are already familiar, we are not yet acquainted with half the economy really employed in the structure of the world. And yet, from the result of our present inquiries, it appears, that "a few undecompounded bodies, which may perhaps ultimately be resolved into still fewer elements, or which may be different forms of the same material, constitute the whole of our tangible universe of things."

It might be expected, however, that not the inanimate world alone, but those for whose reception it was fitted, and to whose use it is adapted, should be subject to their Creator's regulation, and conform to laws of the same general and comprehensive nature. This regulation, indeed, which the right government of

the universe appears to require, the free agency of man seems to forbid, and to be inconsistent, both in reason and experience, with the interference which would be necessary to reduce mankind to an uniform course of action. I think it will nevertheless appear, that there are laws equally universal in their operation, if not equally obvious with those already alluded to, which confine within certain bounds even the animate creation, and are not transgressed by the free agency of man himself. A stronger evidence of omniscient wisdom will hardly be demanded, than such a provision would afford: I shall therefore, with less hesitation, endeavour to illustrate it, though the nature of the subject will carry me into a somewhat prolix discussion.

CHAPTER II.

On the Design of the Creator in regard to the Existence of Mankind upon Earth.

BEFORE we can decide upon the wisdom of the Creator's provisions respecting man, we must necessarily consider his design in bringing him into existence; which appears to be, that he might exercise, according to his opportunities in his progress through the world, the various powers of reason and virtue with which he is endowed.

The proof which reason furnishes of this design, without appealing to higher sources of information, is this, that unless the Creator did propose such an object to the existence of mankind upon earth, he has bestowed upon them needless and superfluous faculties, both moral and intellectual. But to imagine this with regard to man, would be to acquiesce in

a belief with respect to the most exalted inhabitant of the earth, which is contradicted by all our researches into the inferior orders of the creation, and diametrically opposite to the general analogy of nature.

If we look to the inanimate world, there is scarcely a part of which we cannot distinguish the object, either general or particular, subservient to the various wants of living beings.

Among all the properties of things, we discover no inutility, no superfluity. Voluntary motion is denied to the vegetable creation, because mechanical motion answers the purpose; which raises, in some plants, à defence against the wind, which expands others towards the sun, inclines them to the support they require, and diffuses their seed. If we ascend higher towards irrational animals, we find them possessed of powers exactly suited to the rank they hold in the scale of existence. The oyster is fixed to his rock, the herring traverses a vast But the powers of the oyster

extent of ocean.

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are not deficient; he opens his shell for nourishment, and closes it at the approach of an enemy: nor are those of the herring superfluous he secures and supports himself in the frozen seas, and commits his spawn in the summer to the more genial influence of warmer climates. The strength and ferocity of beasts of prey are required by the mode of subsistence allotted to them: if the ant has peculiar sagacity, it is but a compensation for its weakness; if the bee is remarkable for its foresight, that foresight is rendered necessary by the short duration of its harvest can be more various than the powers allowed to animals, each in their order; yet it will be found, that all these powers, which make the study of nature so endless and so interesting, suffice to their necessities, and no more.

Nothing

But man alone, if he is born for no other purpose than to cultivate the earth, and continue his species, has been endued with a faculty, and this the noblest we are acquainted with, for no assignable end. This faculty is