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another, the Aurora Borealis illuminating the sky with its fantastic corruscations. At one time we behold the fiery meteor sweeping through the air; at another, we perceive the forked lightnings darting from the clouds, and hear the thunders rolling through the sky." p. 93.

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By the telescope, we are presented with the most astonishing displays of his own omnipotence, in the immense number, the rapid motions, and the inconceivable magnitude of the celestial globes; and by the microscope we behold, what is still more inconceivable, a display of his unsearchable wisdom in the divine mechanism by which a drop This paragraph, which would be of water is peopled with myriads of ina little too florid in habitants,connexion, -a fact which, were it not ocular demonstration, appears to a peculiar disadvantage subject to would far exceed the limits of human in the work itself, by coming immeconception or belief. We have thus diately after a passage which conthe most striking and sensible evidence tains some plain geological remarks that, from the immeasurable luminaries upon "earths, sand, gravel, marl, of heaven, and from the loftiest serclay, sandstone, freestone, marble, aph that stands before the throne of limestone, fossils, coals, and peat.' God, down to this lower world, and to These topics, however useful and the smallest microscopic animalcula, instructive they may be, furnished that eludes the finest glass,-He is evbut a poor preparation for the fancy ery where present, and by his power, intelligence, and agency, animates, to take so sudden a flight upward. supports, and directs the whole. Such But when our author has been des- views and contemplations, naturally canting on the wonderful powers of lead us to advert to the character of the telescope and the microscope, God, as delineated by the sacred writhe reflections which follow appear ters, that, "He is of great power, and much more like the result of a gen- mighty in strength;" that "his underuine feeling of admiration. standing is infinite;" that "his ways are unsearchable and past finding out;" and they must excite the devout mind to join with fervour, in the language of adoration and praise."—p. 295.

By this admirable instrument, (the microscope,) we behold the same Almighty hand, which rounded the spacious globe on which we live, and the huge masses of the planetary orbs, and directs them in their rapid motions through the sky-employed, at the same moment, in rounding and polishing ten thousand minute transparent globes, in the eye of a fly; and boring and arranging veins and arteries, and forming and clasping joints and claws, for the movements of a mite! We thus learn the admirable and astonishing effects of the wisdom of God, and that the divine care and benevolence, are as much displayed in the construction of the smallest insect, as in the elephant, or the whale, or in those ponderous globes, which roll around us in the sky. These, and thousands of other views which the microscope exhibits, would never have been displayed to the human mind, had they not been opened up by this admirable invention. In fine, by means of the two instruments to which I have now adverted, we behold Jehovah's empire extending to infinity on either hand.

Few, if any writers of this class have ever taken so wide a range over the vast territories of science, as the author before us. and Physiology, Geography and Anatomy Geology, Natural History and Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and Astronomy, are severally regions through which he has taken his excursive flight. Nor does he rest even here; but with untiring wing, next wanders over the spacious domains of art, bringing home from each of the great inventions and discoveries of man, something to augment the riches of his hive. The art of printing and of navigation, the telescope and microscope, the mighty labours of steam: these, and many similar things which testify of the capacity and greatness of man, are shown to witness no less the manifold wis

dom of Him that made him, and are hailed as the harbingers of the millennial day.

Were it demanded how far the author is qualified to collect the of ferings of so many sciences and arts, and present them at the feet of the Christian, we should not hesitate to say, that he has proved himself well qualified for this arduous but grateful task. We would not however, be understood to mean, that he is himself so universal a scholar, as the fulfilment of such a purpose might seem to imply. With the exception of what relates to astronomy, (in which study the author seems to have made very considerable personal attainments,) this work is chiefly a compilation, made up partly from similar works in Natural Theology, and partly from popular treatises on the several sciences: such, for instance, as Parkers' Chemical Catechism, and Bonnycastle's Astronomy; which, being intended chiefly for the young, studiously remark and point out the indications, which the facts they record afford, of the existence, the wisdom, and the benevolence of the Creator.

In the REFLECTIONS, however, which are interspersed throughout the work, there was more room for originality. These are generally pertinent; some of them are striking. But on the whole, we are inclined to think that this book will be more likely to edify the Christian, than to convince the infidel. Those very reflections which are so agreeable and animating, to one who needs no new arguments to confirm his belief, are what most disgust the unbeliever, while they weaken the impression made upon the mind of the inquirer after truth, who is half Christian, half infidel. To such a reader, and to the confirmed atheist, the cool, unimpassioned, candid, skilful arguments of Paley, are not only better adapted than any similar production, but

they appear to us almost incapable of being surpassed. Short of absolute mathematical demonstration, we repeat it, we cannot think of another piece of reasoning in our language, on any subject, at once so inimitable in its manner, and so irresistible in its conclusions, as Paley's Natural Theology. One important respect in which Dr. Paley differs from most writers of the same class is, that he fastens on those examples only, which are strong and unequivocal proofs of the point in question. In so rich and ample a field for illustration, there was really no need of selecting any instances which were either ambiguous or weak; and accordingly, he has selected none. But other writers on the same subjecthave not always been so discreet; and among these we are forced to place our present author. When the phenomena of nature afford such excellent proofs of certain points in Theology-such, for instance, as the existence, the power, and the wisdom of God, we cannot but think that it is injuring the cause to attempt to derive from the same phenomena, doctrines to which they have, to say the most, but a doubtful application. The skeptic who had become thoroughly convinced of the existence and the natural attributes of God, by reading one part of the work before us, would be apt to lose all respect for the writer, when he came to witness his feeble attempt in the fourth chapter, to derive from the same premises, the doctrines of the resur rection, and the general conflagration. Such we believe, would be the effect upon the minds of men of science at least, and consequently upon the only class of readers, who are qualified to estimate the validity of the arguments. Indeed, this whole chapter, affords so many striking examples of the injudicious practice alluded to, that we feel it necessary to animadvert upon it

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with more severity, than we should be inclined to exercise towards a writer, whose general merits entitle him to so much of our respect and esteem. The chapter is entitled, Scriptural Facts illustrated from the system of nature." the first proposition, under this head, namely, that scientific knowledge, or an acquaintance with the system of nature, may frequently serve as a guide to the true interpretation of scripture, we see no cause to object. To the canon also, or rule of interpretation, which is added, we readily assent. It is as follows: that no true interpretation of scripture will be found inconsistent with well-authenticated facts, in the material world; or, in other words, when a passage is of doubtful meaning, or equally capable of different interpretations, it ought to be explained in such a manner as will best agree with the discoveries of truth in science. The author proceeds to offer several illustrations of this rule.

If it be a fact that geological research has ascertained that the materials of the strata of the earth, are of a more ancient date than the Mosaic account of the commencement of the present race of men; the passages in the first chapter of Genesis, and other parts of scripture, which refer to the origin of our world, must be explained as conveying the idea, that the earth was then merely arranged into its present form and order, out of the materials which previously existed in a confused mass, and which had been created by the Almighty, at a prior period in duration. For Moses no where asserts, that the materials of our globe were created, or brought into existence out of nothing, at the time to which his history refers; but insinuates the contrary. For "the earth," says he, prior to its present constitu66 was without form and void."

tion, p. 315.

It frequently happens that an illustration is faulty, when the princi

ple itself is correct; and whatever may be thought of the one just quoted, (and we are inclined to think well of it,) we cannot consider that which follows as at all felicitous.

Again, if it be a fact, that the universe is indefinitely extended,-that, of many millions of vast globes which diversify the voids of space, only two or three have any immediate connexion with the earth, then it will appear most reasonable to conclude, that those expressions in the Mosaic history of the creation, which refer to the creation of the fixed stars, are not to be under

stood as referring to the time when they were brought into existence, as if they had been created about the same time with our earth; but, as simply declaring the fact, that, at what period soever in duration they were created, they derived their existence from God. That they did not all commence their existence at that period, is demonstrable from a fact, that within the space of 2000 years past, and even within the space of the two last centuries, new stars have appeared in the heavens, which previously did not exist in the concave of the firmament, which, consequently have been created since the Mosaic period; or at least, had undergone a change analogous to that which took place in our globe, when it emerged from a chaotic state, to the forta and order in which we now behold it."-p. 315.

Yet the Bible unequivocally asserts that the stars were created on the fourth day, a declaration much more specific than this, that they derived their existence from God. The suggestion in the following passage, that they could not all have been created at that time, surprises us the more, as we do not recollect to have met with the idea in any writer on astronomy, although several of these writers whose treatises we have perused, were very remote from the character of the Christian Philosopher.' The common supposition has been, that these new stars were so dis

tant from us, that their light had just had time to reach us, since the creation; but, as that hypothesis would not account for their disappearing again, another more probable view of the subject has been suggested, which is thus expressed by Dr. Chalmers. "At such an immense distance for observation, it is not to be supposed that we can collect many points of resemblance between the fixed stars, and the solar star which forms the centre of our planetary system. There is one point of resemblance, however, which has not escaped the penetration of our astronomers. We know that our sun turns round upon himself, in a regular period of time. We also learn, that there are dark spots scattered on his surface, which, though invisible to the naked eye, are perfectly noticeable by our instruments. If these spots existed in greater quantity on one side than upon another, it would have the general effect of making that side darker, and the revolution of the sun must, in sucha case give us a brighter and a fainter side, by regular alternations. Now, there are some of the fixed stars which present this appearance. They present us with periodical variations of light. From the splendour of a star of the first or second magnitude, they fade away into some of the inferior magnitudes-and one, by becoming invisible, might give reason to apprehend that we had lost him altogether--but we can still recognize him by the telescope, till at length he re-appears in his own place, and after a lapse of so many days and hours, recovers his original brightness."*

The second position of the author is, that the system of nature confirms and illustrates the scriptural doctrine of the depravity of man. This point is argued from

*Chalmers's Astronomical Discourses,

P. 21.

the disorders that exist among the interior strata of the earth, indicative of vast and destructive revolutions that have occurred since their first creation-from the ravages of volcanoes and earthquakes--and from "thunder-storms, tempests, and hurricanes"-and from "the vast and frightful regions of ice around the poles."

The fact that so many of the human race have been punished by the operation of these natural agents, may be admitted as some proof of the wickedness of man. But we are of opinion that all the laws of nature are benevolent in their design, and entirely benevolent; and that the mode in which they are made instrumental in punishing the wicked, is that these are brought into the range of those operations which, though destructive, on account of their resistless energy, to the individuals that fall in their way, are still essential to the well-being and safety of the whole. Modern sciences, particularly chemistry and geology, have discovered the beneficial tendency of so many of these convulsive efforts of nature, which seemed before to be designed merely to scourge and afflict mankind, that we feel justified by a sound analogy in repeating the assertion, that the operations of all the laws of nature, even in their greatest irregularities, are good in their intention, and designed for the security and happiness of the world.

Thus the disruptions and dislocations of the strata composing the crust of the earth, so far from indicating in itself any marks of the displeasure of the Deity, is commonly mentioned by geologists as the most fortunate circumstance in the world for their science; for, had the strata remained in a horizontal position, (as the author seems to take it for granted they were created,) nearly all the facilities which are now offered for the study

of geology, would have been wanting. Instead of the knowledge which the ardent devotees of this science, are now able to acquire respecting the interior of the earth, and of the diversified substances that compose its crust, by examining, as they have now the means of doing, the edges of the inclined strata the caverns, that open an avenue to the abysses of the earth-and the frightful precipices that tower amid the ruins of the Alps or the Andes, their observations would be almost limited to one or two of the uppermost strata, were the crust of the earth formed throughout of horizontal, unbroken layers. Those riches moreover, which the mineral kingdom now pours into the lap of commerce, and administers to all the arts, would, in such a case, either lie mostly concealed forever from the view of man, or be nearly inaccessible to the miner. Those very disorders of the interior of the earth, therefore, indicate the benevolent purposes of the Creator no less, than the life that subsists, and the beauty that blooms, on the surface. Nor, in the opinion of the ablest geologists, are they to be referred, in general, to the deluge, but to revolutions which occurred during that period of which the author has spoken in his first illustration, "when the earth was without form and void,"--revolutions of course, not designed to scourge and afflict man, but to prepare the earth for his habitation. The origin of volcanoes being deep in the caverns of the earth, science has not been able to disclose completely the part they bear in the economy of nature. We could suggest some reasons already explored for thinking that this part is salutary; but we will, for the present, content ourselves with the inference to which all the analogy of nature points, that when their agency is fully developed, it will prove to be

beneficent in proportion to their sublime and awful phenomena. We are even now permitted to descry in the hurricane, gleaming through its black and portentous shroud, the hand of our most merciful Heavenly Father; and can unite with the Psalmist in summoning to his praise, fire and hail, snow and vapour, and stormy wind fulfilling his word. All who have attentively studied the atmosphere, and learned its diversified and important agencies, both chemical and mechanical, must have deeply felt how necessary it is to the safety of the world, that the equilibrium of this fluid should be preserved, with such variations only as are necessary to make it circulate in the form of winds and breezes. Viewing, therefore, the tornado as indicating somewhere, a disturbance in this equilibrium excessive in degree and fatal in its tendency, they will regard it as a messenger of mercy pressing its way onward, hurrying to prevent a direful catastrophe.

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The vast and frightful regions of ice around the poles," which our author considers as also degrading the habitation of man, are, to our minds, striking proofs of benevolent design in the works of creation; and so we believe they would have been regarded by himself, had he fully understood the influence which they exert in the economy of nature. His mistake lay in supposing that ice is the cause of cold; whereas its whole tendency is the other way-namely, to check and to arrest it. Chemists have clearly proved that congelation, though it is caused by cold, is nevertheless not itself a cooling but a heating process-that whenever water passes into the state of ice, a great quantity of heat is liberated, which contributes to soften the air, and to prevent the further reduction of its temperature; and, on the contrary, whenever ice melts, a similar quantity of heat is withdrawn

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