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AUTHOR: 
 
 WHEWELL, WILLIAM 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 ASTRONOMY AND 
 GENERAL PHYSICS 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 LONDON 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 1852 
 
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 Whewell, William, 1794-1866. 
 
 Astronomy and general physics, considered with refer- "i 
 ence to natural theology. By William Whewell ... rTth 
 ed.] London, H. G. Bohn, 1852. 
 
 viii, 328 p. front, (port.) 19"". {Half-title: The Bridgcwatcr treatises 
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THE BRIDGEWATER TREATISES 
 
 OK THE 
 
 POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS OF GOD, AS MANIFESTED 
 
 IN THE CREATION. 
 
 ASTEONOMY AND GENEEAL PHYSICS CONSIDEEED 
 WITH EEFEEENCE TO NATUEAL THEOLOGY. 
 
 By WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION, 
 
ET H.EC DE DEO, DE QUO UTIQUE EX PH.KXOMENIS DI.SSERERE Al> 
 PHILOSOPUIAU NATURALEM PERTINET. 
 
 Newton, Conclusion oj the Princiina. 
 
 • I. 
 
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 ".■"•in HI! i.B!iipii*"'!T"' 
 
 
 
 
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 ASTRONOMY 
 
 AN1» 
 
 GENERAL PHYSICS 
 
 .kl \ 
 
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 .•••NSIDEKED WITH REFERENCE TO 
 
 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 
 
 MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE AND PROFESSOR OK MORAL PHILOSOPHY 
 IN THE in^IVKKSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 H. G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COYENT GAEDEN. 
 
 1852. 
 
 i 
 
 iAfi 
 
LONDON' : 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS 
 
 K 
 
 32./ 
 
 'Yf5'7 
 
 • 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 ••:) 
 
 r 
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 CHARLES JA]\IES, 
 LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I owe it to you that I was selected for the task 
 attempted in the following pages, a distinction which I feel 
 to be honourable ; and on this account alone I should have 
 a peculiar pleasure in dedicating the w^ork to your Lordship. 
 I do so with additional gratification on another account : 
 the Treatise has been written within the walls of the College 
 of which your Lordship was formerly a resident member, 
 and its merits, if it have any, are mainly due to the spirit 
 ^d habits of the place. The society is always pleased and 
 proud to recollect that a person of the eminent talents and 
 high character of your Lordship is one of its members ; and 
 I am persuaded that any effort in the cause of letters and 
 religion coming from that quarter, will hav^e for you an 
 interest beyond what it would otherwise possess. 
 
 The subject proposed to me was limited ; my prescribed 
 object is to lead the friends of religion to look with confidence 
 
 ] 
 
VI 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 and pleasure on tbe progress of the physical sciences, by 
 showing how admirably every advance in our knowledge of 
 the universe harmonizes with the belief of a most wise and 
 good God. To do this effectually may be, I trust, a useful 
 labour. Yet, I feel most deeply, what I would take this 
 occasion to express, that this, and all that the speculator 
 concerning Natural Theology can do, is utterly insufficient 
 for the great ends of Eeligion ; namely, for the purpose of 
 reforming men's lives, of purifying and elevating their 
 characters, of preparing them for a more exalted state of 
 being. It is the need of something fitted to do this, which 
 gives to Eeligion its vast and incomparable importance ; and 
 this can, I well know, be achieved only by that Eevealed 
 Eeligion of which we are ministers, but on which the plan 
 of the present work did not allow me to dwell. 
 
 That Divine Providence may prosper the labours of your 
 Lordship and of all who are joined with you in the task of 
 maintaining and promoting tlds Eeligion, is, my Lord, the 
 earnest wish and prayer of 
 
 Your very faithful 
 
 and much obliged Servant, 
 
 "WILLIAM WHEWELL. 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 Feb. 25 1833. 
 
 \ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 « 
 
 LWitliiii the last few years, several works have been published in this souutry on 
 subjects more or less closely approaching to that here treated. It may, therefore, 
 be not superfluous to say that the Author of the following pages belie'.-es that he 
 has not borrowed any of his views or illustrations from recent Euglish writers 
 on Natural Theology.] 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. Object of the present Treatise 1 
 
 II. Ou Laws of Nature 5 
 
 III. Mutual Adaptation of Laws of Nature .... 9 
 
 IV. Division of the Subject 12 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS 14 
 
 I. The Length of the Year 18 
 
 II. The Length of the Day 28 
 
 III. The Mass of the Earth 35 
 
 IV. The Magnitude of the Ocean 44 
 
 V. The Magnitude of the Atmosphere . . . . . 45 
 
 VI. The Constancy and Variety of Climates . . .47 
 
 VII. The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Vetriety 
 
 of Climate 53 
 
 VIII. The Constituents of Climate 64 
 
 The Laws of Heat with respect to the Earth . . . 65 
 
 IX. The Laws of Heat with respect to "Water . . . .68 
 
 X. The Laws of Heat with respect to Air . . . . 82 
 
 XL The Laws of Electricity 94 
 
 XII. The Laws of Magnetism 96 
 
 XIII. The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation . . 98 
 
 XIV. Sound 100 
 
 XV. The Atmosphere 107 
 
 XVL Light 109 
 
 XVII. The Ether 113 
 
 XVIII. Recapitulation 121 
 
 \ 
 
VUl 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 PAGE 
 126 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 I. The Structure of the Solar System ■'^ 
 
 IL The Circular Orbits of the Planets round the Sun . .131 
 
 III. The Stability of the Solar System ^^^ 
 
 IV. The Sun in the Centre 
 
 V. The Satellites • ... 148 ^ 
 
 VI. The Stability of the Ocean ^^^ 
 
 VII. The Nebular Hypothesis ^"^^ 
 
 VIII The Existence of a Resisting Medium in the Solar System 164 
 
 1 80 
 IX. Mechanical Laws 
 
 X. The Law of Gravitation ^°^ 
 
 XL The Laws of Motion ^^^ 
 
 905 
 XII. Friction 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS ^^^ 
 
 I. The Creator of the Physical World is the Governor of the 
 
 Moral World 210 
 
 IL On the Vastness of the Universe 231 
 
 III. On Man's Place in the Universe . . . ... 240 
 
 IV. On the Impression produced by the Contemplation of 
 
 Laws of Nature; or, on the Conviction that Law 
 
 implies Mind ^^^ 
 
 V. On Inductive Habits ; or, on the Impression produced on 
 
 Men s Minds by discovering Laws of Nature . . 261 
 
 VI. On Deductive Habits ; or, on the Impression produced on 
 
 Men's Minds by tracing the Consequences of ascertained 
 Laws 2^^ 
 
 VII. On Final Causes -^^ 
 
 VIIL On the Physical Agency of the Deity 306 
 
 IX. On the Impression produced by considering the Nature 
 and Prospects of Science ; or, on the Impossibility of 
 the Progress of our Knowledge ever enabling us to 
 comprehend the Nature of the Deity . . . .314 
 
 OX 
 
 ASTHONOMY AND GENERAL 
 
 PHYSICS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Chap. l.—Olject of t!te Present Treatise. 
 
 m 
 
 The examination of the material world brings l)efore 
 us a number of things and relations of things which 
 suggest to most minds the belief of a creating* and 
 presiding Intelligence. And this impression, which 
 arises with the most vague and superficial considei'ation 
 of the objects by which we are surrounded, is, w^e; con- 
 ceive, confirmed and expanded by a more exact and 
 profound study of external nature. Many works have 
 been written at different times with the view of showing 
 how our Imowledge of the elements and their operation, 
 of plants and animals and their construction, may serve 
 to nourish and unfold our idea of a Creator and Governor 
 of the world. But though this is the case, a new work 
 on the same subject may still have its use. Our views 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 i^ 
 
 i\ 
 
 of the Creator and Governor of the workl, as collected 
 from, or comhined with, our views of the world itself, 
 undergo modifications, as we are led hy new discoveries, 
 new generalisations, to regard nature in a new Hght^ 
 The conceptions concerning the Deity, his mode of 
 effecting his purposes, the scheme of his government,^ 
 which are suggested hy one stage of our knowledge of 
 natural objects and operations, may become manifestly 
 imperfect or incongi'uous, if adhered to and applied at 
 a later period, when our acquaintance with the imme- 
 diate causes of natural events has been gi'eatly extended. 
 On tliis account it may be interesting, after such an 
 advance, to show how the views of the creation, preser- 
 vation, and government of the universe, which natural 
 science opens to us, harmonise with om* behef in a 
 Creator, Governor, and Preserver of the world. To 
 do this with respect to certain departments of Natural 
 Philosophy is the object of the following pages ; and 
 the author will deem himself fortunate, if he succeeds 
 in removing any of the difficulties and obscurities 
 which prevail in men's minds, from the want of a clear 
 mutual understanding between the religious and the 
 scientific speculator. It is needless here to remark 
 the necessarily imperfect and scanty character of 
 Natural Eeligion; for most persons will allow that, 
 however imperfect may be the knowledge of a Supreme 
 InteUigence which we gather from the contemplation 
 of the natural world, it is still of most essential use and 
 value. And our pui^iose on this occasion is, not to 
 show that Natural Theology is a perfect and satisfac- 
 tory scheme, but to bring up our Natural Theology to 
 
 OBJECT. o 
 
 the point of view in which it may be contemplated by 
 the aid of our Natural Philosophy. 
 
 Now the peculiar x)oint of view which at j) resent 
 belongs to Natural Philosophy, and especially to the 
 departments of it which have been most successfully 
 cultivated, is, that nature, so far as it is an object of 
 scientific research, is a collection of facts governed by 
 laics: our knowledge of nature is our knowledge of 
 laws\ of laws of operation and connexion, of laws of 
 succession and co-existence, among the various ele- 
 ments and appearances around us. And it must 
 therefore here be our aim to show how this view of 
 the universe falls in with our conception of the Divine 
 Author, by whom we hold the universe to be made and 
 governed. 
 
 Nature acts hy (jeneral laivs ; that is, the occurrences 
 
 of the world in which we find ourselves, result from 
 
 causes which operate according to fixed and constant 
 
 rules. The succession of days, and seasons, and years, 
 
 is produced by the motions of the earth; and these 
 
 again are governed by the attraction of the sun, a force 
 
 which acts with undeviating steadiness and regidarity. 
 
 The changes of wmds and skies, seemingly so capricious 
 
 and casual, are produced by the operation of the sun's 
 
 heat upon air and moisture, land and sea ; and though 
 
 in this case we cannot trace the ]3articular evcjiits to 
 
 their general causes, as we can trace the motions of the 
 
 sun and moon, no philosophical mind will doubt the 
 
 generality and fixity of the rules by which these causes 
 
 act. The variety of the effects takes place, l>ecause 
 
 the circumstances in different cases vary; and not 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 because the action of material causes leaves anything 
 to chance in the result. And again, though the vital 
 movements which go on in the frame of vegetables and 
 animals depend on agencies still less known, and 
 probably still more complex, than those which rule 
 tlie weather, each of the powers on which such move- 
 ments depend has its peculiar laws of action, and these 
 are as universal and as mvariable as the law by which 
 a stone falls to the earth when not supported. 
 
 The world then is governed by general laws ; and in 
 order to collect from the world itself a judgment con- 
 cerning the nature and character of its government, we 
 must consider the import and tendency of such laws, so 
 far as they come under our knowledge. If there be, in 
 the administration of the universe, mtelligence and 
 benevolence, superintendence and foresight, grounds 
 for love and hope, such qualities may be expected to 
 appear in the constitution and combination of those 
 fundamental regidations by which the course of nature 
 is brought about, and made to be what it is. 
 
 If a man were, by some extraordinary event, to find 
 himself in a remote and unknown country, so entirely 
 strange to him that he did not know wiiether there 
 existed in it any law or government at all ; he might 
 in no long time ascertain whether the inhabitants were 
 controlled by any supermtending authority ; and with 
 a little attention he might determine also whether such 
 authority were exercised with a prudent care for the 
 happiness and well being of its subjects, or without any 
 regard and fitness to such ends ; whether the country 
 were governed by laws at all, and whether the laws 
 
 ON LAWS OF NATUEE. * 5 
 
 were good. And according to the laws which he thus 
 found prevailing, he would judge of the sagacity, and 
 the purposes of the legislative power. 
 
 By observing the laws of the material universe and 
 their operation, we may hope, in a somewhat similar 
 manner, to be able to direct our judgment concerning 
 the government of the universe : concerning the mode 
 in which tlie elements are regulated and controlled, 
 their effects combined and balanced. And th(j general 
 tendency of the results thus produced may discover to 
 us something of the character of the power which has 
 legislated for the material world. 
 
 We are not to push too far the analc»gy thus 
 suggested. There is undoubtedly a wide difference 
 between the cii'cumstances of man legislating for man, 
 and God legislating for matter. Still we shall, it will 
 appear, find abundant reason to admire the wisdom 
 and the goodness wliich have established the Laivs of 
 Nature, however rigorously we may scrutinise the 
 import of this expression. 
 
 Chap. II. — On Laws of Nature, 
 
 When we speak of material nature as being governed 
 by laivs, it is sufficiently evident that we use the term 
 in a manner somewhat metaphorical. The laws to 
 which man's attention is primarily directed are moral 
 laws : rules laid down for his actions ; rules for the 
 conscious actions of a person ; rules which, as a matter 
 of possibility, he may obey or may transgress ; the 
 latter event being combined, not with an impossibihty, 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 but witli a penalty. But tlie Latvs of Nature are 
 something different from this ; they are rules for that 
 which things are to do and suffer; and this by no 
 consciousness or wiU of theirs. They are rules 
 describing the mode in which things do act; they 
 are invariably obeyed; their transgTession is not 
 punished, it is excluded. The language of a moral 
 law is, man shall not kill ; the language of a Law of 
 Natm-e is, a stone ivill fall to the earth. 
 
 These two kinds of laws direct the actions of persons 
 and of things, by the sort of control of which persons 
 and things are respectively susceptible ; so that the 
 metaphor is very simple ; but it is proper for us to 
 recollect that it is a metaphor, in order that we may 
 clearly apprehend what is implied in speaking of the 
 Laws of Nature. 
 
 In this pln-ase are mcluded all properties of the por- 
 tions of the material world ; all modes of action and 
 rules of causation, according to which they operate on 
 each other. The whole course of the visible miiverse, 
 therefore, is but the collective result of such laws ; its 
 movements are only the aggregate of their working. 
 All natural occurrences in the skies and on the earth, 
 in the organic and in the inorganic world, are deter- 
 mined by the relations of the elements and the actions 
 of the forces of which the rules are thus x)rescribed. 
 
 The relations and rules by which these occurrences 
 are thus determined necessarily depend on measures of 
 time and space, motion and force ; on quantities which 
 are subject to numerical measiu'ement, and capable of 
 being connected by mathematical properties. And thus 
 
 ON LAWS OF NATURE. / 
 
 all things are ordered by number and weight and 
 measure. " God," as was said by the ancients, "works 
 by geometry :" the legislation of the material universe 
 is necessarily delivered in the language of matliematics ; 
 the stars in their courses are regulated by the proper- 
 ties of conic sections, and the winds depend on arith- 
 metical and geometrical progressions of elasticity and 
 pressui'e. 
 
 The constitution of the universe, so far as it can 
 be clearly apprehended by our intellect, thus assimies 
 a shape involving an assemblage of mathematical 
 propositions: certain algebraical formulae, and the 
 knowledge when and how to apply them, constitute the 
 last step of the physical science to which we can attain. 
 The labour and the endowments of ages have been 
 emi)loyed in bringing such science into the condition 
 in which it now exists : and an exact and extensive 
 discipline in mathematics, followed by a practical and 
 ]Drofound study of the researches of natural philoso- 
 phers, can alone put any one in possession of all the 
 knowledge concerning the coui'se of the mateiial world, 
 which is at present open to man. The general impres- 
 sion, however, which arises from the view thus obtained 
 of the universe, the results which we collect from the 
 most careful scrutiny of its administration, may, we 
 trust, be rendered intelligible without this technical 
 and laborious study, and to do this is onr present 
 object. 
 
 It will be our business to show that the laws which 
 really prevail in nature are, by their form — tliat is, by 
 tlie natiu'e of the connexion which they estabHsh among 
 
 ..,,.* J t: 
 
..^^ r 
 
 El) 
 
 {5 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the quantities and properties which they regulate — 
 remarkably adapted to the office which is assigned 
 them ; and thus offer evidence of selection, design, and 
 goodness, in the power by which they were established. 
 But these characters of the legislation of the universe 
 may also be seen, in many instances, in a manner 
 somewhat different from the selection of the law. The 
 nature of the connexion remaining the same, the quan- 
 tities which it regulates may also in their magnitude 
 bear marks of selection and purpose. For the law 
 may be the same while the quantities to which it 
 apphes ai'e different. The law of the gravity which 
 acts to the earth and to Jupiter, is the same ; but the 
 intensity of the force at the surfaces of the two planets 
 is different. The law which regulates the density of 
 the air at any point, with reference to the height from 
 the earth's surface, would be the same, if the atmos- 
 i:)here were ten times as large, or only one-tenth as 
 large, as it is ; if the barometer at the earth's surface 
 stood at three inches only, or if it showed a pressure of 
 thirty feet of mercury. 
 
 Now, this being understood, the adaptation of a law 
 to its purpose, or to other laws, may appear in two 
 ways : either in the form of the law, or in the amount 
 of the magnitudes which it regulates, which are some- 
 times called arbitrary magnitudes. 
 
 If the attraction of the sun upon the planets did not 
 vaiy inversely as the square of the distance, the form 
 of the law of gravitation would be changed ; if this 
 attraction were, at the earth's orbit, of a different value 
 from its present one, the arbitrary magnitude would be 
 
 ADAPTATION OF LAWS. 
 
 9 
 
 changed ; and it will appear, in a subsequent part of 
 this work, that either change would, so far as we can 
 trace its consequences, be detrimental. The form of 
 the law determines in what manner the facts shall 
 take place; the arbitrary magnitude determines how 
 fast, how far, how soon ; the one gives a model, the 
 other a measure, of the phenomenon ; the one draws 
 the plan, the other gives the scale, on which it is to 
 be executed ; the one gives the rule, the other the rate. 
 If either were wrongly taken, the result would be 
 wrong too. 
 
 Chap. III. — Mutual Adaptation in the Laws of Nature. 
 
 To ascertain such laws of nature as we have been 
 describing, is the peculiar business of science. It is 
 only with regard to a very small portion of the appear- 
 ances of the universe, that science, in any strict appli- 
 cation of the term, exists. In very few departments 
 of research have men been able to trace a multitude of 
 known facts to causes which appear to be the ultimate 
 material causes, or to discern the laws which seem to 
 be the most general laws. Yet, in one or two instances, 
 they have done this, or something approaching to this ; 
 and most especially in the instance of that part of 
 nature which it is the object of this treatise more 
 peculiarly to consider. 
 
 The apparent motions of the sun, moon, and stars, 
 have been more completely reduced to their causes 
 and laws than any other class of phenomena. Astro- 
 nomy, the science which treats of these, is already a 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ADAPTATION OF LAWS. 
 
 11 
 
 I 
 
 wonderful example of the degree of sucli knowledge 
 which man may attain. The forms of its most impor- 
 tant laws may be conceived to be certainly Imown; 
 and hundreds of observers, in all parts of the world, 
 are daily employed in determining, with additional 
 accm*acy, the arbitrary magnitudes which these laws 
 involve. 
 
 The inquiries in which the mutual effects of heat, 
 moisture, air, and the like elements are treated of, 
 mcludmg, among otlier subjects, all that we know of 
 the causes of the weather (meteorology) is a far more 
 imperfect science than astronomy. Yet, with regard 
 to these agents, a great number of laws of nature have 
 been discovered, though undoubtedly a far greater 
 number remain still unknown. 
 
 So far, therefore, as our knowledge goes, astronomy 
 and meteorology are parts of natm^al philosophy in 
 wliich we" may study the order of nature with such 
 views as we have suggested ; in wliich we may hope to 
 make out the adaptations and aims wliich exist in the 
 laws of nature ; and thus to obtain some light on 
 the tendency of this part of the legislation of the 
 universe, and on the character and disposition of the 
 Legislator. 
 
 The number and variety of the laws which we find 
 etitablished in the universe is so great, that it would be 
 idle to endeavour to enumerate them. In their opera- 
 tion they are combined and intermixed in incalculable 
 and endless complexity, influencing and modifjang 
 each other's effects in every direction. If we attempt 
 to comprehend at once the whole of this complex 
 
 system, we find ourselves utterly baffled and over- 
 whelmed by its extent and multiplicity. Yet, in so far 
 as we consider the bearing of one part upon another, 
 we receive an impression of adaptation, of mutual 
 fitness, of conspiring means, of preparation and com- 
 pletion, of purpose and provision. This impression is 
 suggested by the contemplation of every part of nature ; 
 but the grounds of it, from the very circumstances of 
 the case, cannot be conveyed in a few words. It can 
 only be fully educed by leading the reader through 
 several views and details, and must gi'ow out of the 
 combined influence of these on a sober and reflecting 
 frame of mind. However strong and solemn be the 
 conviction which may be derived from a contemplation 
 of nature, concerning the existence, the power, the 
 wisdom, the goodness of our Di\ine Governor, we 
 cannot expect that tliis conviction, as resulting from 
 the extremely complex spectacle of the material world, 
 should be capable of being irresistibly conveyed by 
 a few steps of reasoning, like the conclusion of a 
 geometrical pro^josition, or the result of an arithmetical 
 calculation. 
 
 We shall, therefore, endeavour to x)oint out cases 
 and circumstances in which the different parts of the 
 •universe exhibit this mutual adaptation, and thus to 
 bring before the mind of the reader the evidence of 
 wisdom and providence, wliich tlie external world 
 affords. When we have illustrated the correspond- 
 encies which exist in every province of nature, between 
 the qualities of brute matter and the constitution of 
 living things, between the tendency to derangement 
 
12 
 
 INTRODUCTION . 
 
 DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 13 
 
 and the conservative influences by which such a 
 tendency is counteracted, between tlie office of the 
 minutest speck and of the most general laws : it will, 
 we trust, be difficult or impossible to exclude from our 
 conception of this wonderful system, the idea of a 
 liarmonising, a preserving, a contriving, an intending 
 mind ; of a AVisdom, Power, and Goodness far exceed- 
 ing the limits of our thoughts. 
 
 Chap. IV. — Division of the Suhject. 
 
 Ix making a sui'vey of the universe, for the purpose 
 of pointing out such correspondencies and adaptations 
 as we have mentioned, we shall suppose the general 
 leading facts of the course of nature to be known, and 
 the explanations of their causes now generally esta- 
 blished among astronomers and natural philosophers 
 to be conceded. We shall assume, therefore, that the 
 earth is a soUd globe of ascertained magnitude, which 
 travels round the smi, in an orbit nearly circular, in a 
 period of about three hundred and sixty-five days and 
 a quarter, and in the mean time revolves, in an inclined 
 position, upon its own axis in about twenty-four hours, 
 thus producing the succession of appearances and 
 effects which constitute seasons and cHmates, day and 
 night ; — that this globe has its surface furrowed and 
 ridged with various inequalities, the waters of the ocean 
 occupymg the depressed parts :— that it is surrounded 
 by an atmosphere, or spherical covering of air ; and 
 that various other physical agents, moisture, electricity, 
 magnetism, light, operate at the surface of the earth, 
 
 according to their peculiar laws. This surface is, as 
 we know, clothed with a covering of plants, and 
 inhabited by the various tribes of animals, with all 
 their variety of sensations, wants, and enjoyments. 
 The relations and connexions of the larger portions of 
 the world, the sun, the planets, and the stars, the 
 cosmical arrangements of the system, as they are some- 
 times called, determine the course of events among 
 these bodies ; and the more remarkable features of 
 these arrangements are therefore some of the subjects 
 for our consideration. These cosmical arrangements, 
 in their consequences, effect also the physical agencies 
 which are at work at the surface of the earth, and 
 hence come in contact with terrestrial occmTences. 
 They thus influence the functions of plants and 
 animals. The circumstances in the cosmical system 
 of the universe, and in the organic system of the earth, 
 which have thus a bearing on each other, form another 
 of the subjects of which we shall treat. The former 
 class of considerations attends principally to the 
 stability and other apparent perfections of the solar 
 system ; the latter to the well-being of the system of 
 organic life by which the earth is occupied. The two 
 portions of the subject may be treated as Cosmical 
 Arrangements and Terrestrial Adaptations. 
 
 We shall begm with the latter class of adaptations, 
 because in treating of these the facts are more familiar 
 and tangible, and the reasonings less abstract and 
 technical, than in the other division of the subject. 
 Moreover, in this case, men have no difficulty in 
 recognismg as desirable the end which is answered by 
 
14 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 such adaptations, and they therefore the more readily 
 consider it as an end. The nourisliment, the enjoy- 
 ment, the diffusion of living things, are Avillingly 
 acknowledged to be a suitable object for contrivance ; 
 the simplicity, the permanence of an inert mechanical 
 combination might not so readily be allowed to be a 
 manifestly worthy aim of a Creating Wisdom. The 
 former branch of our argument may therefore be best 
 suited to introduce to us the Deity as the institutor of 
 Law^s of Nature, though the latter may afterwards give 
 us a wider view and a clearer insight into one province 
 of his legislation. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 We proceed in this Book to point out relations 
 which subsist between the laws of the inorganic world, 
 that is, the general facts of astronomy and meteoro- 
 logy ; and the laws which prevail in the organic world, 
 the properties of plants and animals. 
 
 With regard to the first kind of laws, they are in the 
 highest degree various and unlike each other. The 
 intensity and activity of natural mfluences follow m 
 different cases the most different rules. In some 
 instances they are periodical, increasing and dimi- 
 nishing alternately, in a perpetual succession of equal 
 intervals of time. This is the case with the heat 
 
 1^ 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 15 
 
 at the earth's surface, which has a period of a year ; 
 with the Hght, which has a period of a day. Other 
 qualities are constant, thus the force of gravity at the 
 same place is always the same. In some cases, a very 
 simple cause produces very complicated effects ; thus 
 the globular form of the earth, and the inchnation of 
 its axis during its annual motion, give rise to all the 
 variety of climates. In other cases a very complex 
 and variable system of causes produces effects compa- 
 ratively steady and uniform ; thus solar and terrestrial 
 heat, air, moisture, and probably many other apparently 
 conflicting agents, join to produce our weather, which 
 never deviates very far from a certain average standard. 
 
 Now a general fact, wliich we shall endeavour to 
 exemplify in the following chapters, is this: — That 
 those properties of plants and animals which have 
 reference to agencies of a periodical character, have 
 also b}^ their nature a periodical mode of working; 
 while those properties which refer to agencies of con- 
 stant intensity, are adjusted to this constant int,ensity : 
 and again, there are peculiarities in the nature of orga- 
 nised beings which have reference to a variet}- in the 
 conditions of the external world, as, for instance, the 
 difference of the organised population of different 
 regions : and there are other peculiarities whi(;h have 
 a reference to the constancy of the average of such 
 conditions, and the limited range of the deviations from 
 that average ; as, for example, that constitution by 
 which each plant and animal is fitted to exist and 
 prosper in its usual place in the world. 
 
 And not only is there this general agreement between 
 
ill 
 
 I 
 
 M 
 
 16 
 
 TEUrvESTRIAL ADAPTATIO^'S. 
 
 the nature of the laws which govern the organic and 
 inorganic world, but also there is a coincidence between 
 the arbitrary magnitudes which such laws involve on the 
 one hand and on the other. Plants and animals have, 
 in their construction, certain periodical functions, 
 which have a reference to alternations of heat and cold ; 
 the length of the period which belongs to these func- 
 tions by their construction, appears to be that of the 
 period which belongs to the actual alternations of heat 
 and cold, namely, a year. Plants and animals have 
 again in their construction certain other periodical 
 functions, which have a reference to alternations of 
 light and darkness ; the length of the period of such 
 functions appears to coincide with the natural day. In 
 like manner the other arbitrary magnitudes which enter 
 into the laws of gi'avity, of the effects of air and mois- 
 ture, and of other causes of permanence, and of change, 
 by which the influences of the elements operate, are the 
 same arbitrary magnitudes to which the members of 
 the organic world are adapted by the various peculia- 
 *rities of then- construction. 
 
 Tlie illustration of this view will be pursued in the 
 succeeding chapters; and when the coincidence here 
 spoken of is distinctly brought before the reader, it 
 will, we trust, be found to convey the conviction of a 
 wise and benevolent design, which has been exercised 
 in producing such an agreement between the internal 
 constitution and the external circumstances of organised 
 beings. We shall adduce cases where there is an 
 apparent relation between the course of operation of 
 the elements and the course of vital functions ; between 
 
 TERIIESTIIIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 some fixed measure of time or space, traced in tlie life- 
 less and in the livmg world ; where creatures are con- 
 structed on a certain plan, or a certam scale, and tliis 
 plan or this scale is exactly the single one which is 
 suited to their place on the earth ; where it was neces- 
 sary for the Creator (if w^e may use such a mode of 
 speakmg) to take account of the weight of the earth, or 
 the density of the air, or the measure of the ocean and 
 where these quantities are rightly taken account of in 
 the arrangements of creation. In such cases we con- 
 ceive that we trace a Creator, who, in producing one 
 part of his work, was not forgetful or careless of another 
 X)art; who did not cast his living creatures into the 
 world to prosper or peiish as they might iind it 
 suited to them or not; but fitted together, with the 
 nicest skill, tlie world and the constitution which he 
 gave to its inhabitants ; so fashioning it and them, that 
 light and darkness, sun and air, moist and dry, should 
 become their ministers and benefactors, the unwearied 
 and unfailing causes of their well being. 
 
 We have spoken of the mutual adaptation of thcy.^' 
 organic and the inorganic world. If we were to con- - 
 ceive the contrivance of tlie world as taking place in ,, 
 an order of time in the contriving mind, we might 
 also have to conceive this adaptation as taking place 
 in one of two ways ; we might either suppose the laws 
 of inert nature to be accommodated to the foreseen 
 wants of living things, or the organisation of life to be 
 accommodated to the previously established laws of 
 nature. But we are not forced upon any such mode 
 of conception, or upon any decision betweeri such 
 
18 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 
 
 19 
 
 suppositions ; since, for tlie purpose of our argument, 
 the consequence of either view is the same. Tliere 
 is an adaptation somewhere or other, on either suppo- 
 sition. There is account taken of one part of the 
 system in framing the other : and the mind which took 
 such account can be no other than that of the Intel- 
 ligent Author of the universe. When indeed we come 
 to see the vast number, the variety, the extent, the 
 interweaving, the reconciling of such adaptations, we 
 shaU readily allow, that all things are so moulded upon 
 and locked into each other, connected by such subtHty 
 and profundity of design, that we may well abandon 
 the idle attempt to trace the order of thought in the 
 mind of the Supreme Ordainer. 
 
 Chap, I.— The Length of the Year. 
 
 A YEAR is the most important and obvioub of the 
 periods which occur in the organic, and especiaUy in 
 the vegetable world. In this interval of time the cycle 
 of most of the external influences which operate upon 
 plants is completed. There is also in plants a cycle of 
 internal fmictions, corresponding to this succession of 
 external causes. The length of either of these periods 
 might have been different from what it is, according to 
 any grounds of necessity which we can perceive. But 
 a certain length is selected in both instances, and in 
 both instances the same. The length of the year is so 
 determined as to be adapted to the constitution of 
 most vegetables ; or the construction of vegetables is 
 so adjusted as to be suited to the length which the year 
 
 « 
 
 really has, and unsuited to a duration longer or shorter 
 by any considerable portion. The vegetable clock-work 
 is so set as to go for a year. 
 
 The length of the year or interval of recurrcince of 
 the seasons is determined by the time which i\m earth 
 employs in performing its revolution round the sun : and 
 we can very easily conceive the solar system so adjusted 
 tliat the year should be longer or shorter than it 
 actually is. We can imagine the eaith to revolve round 
 the sun at a distance greater or less than that which it 
 at present has, all the forces of the system remaining 
 unaltered. If the earth were removed towards the centre 
 by about one-eighth of its distance, the year would be 
 diminished by about a month ; and in the same laanner 
 it would be increased by a month on increasing the 
 distance by one -eighth. We can suppose the earth at 
 a distance of eighty-four or one hundred and eiglit mil- 
 lions of miles, just as easily as at its x)resent distance of 
 ninety-six miUions : we can suppose the earth with its 
 present stock of animals and vegetables placed where 
 Mars or where Venus is, and revolving in an orbit like 
 one of theirs : on the former supposition our year 
 would become twenty -tln^ee, on the latter seven of our 
 present months. Or we can conceive the present dis- 
 tances of the parts of the system to continue what they 
 are, and the size, or the density of the central mass, 
 the sun, to be increased or diminished in any ]3ropor- 
 tion ; and in this way the time of the earth's revolution 
 might have been increased or diminished in any degree; 
 a greater velocity, and consequently a diminished 
 
 period, being requisite in order to balance an augmented 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
20 
 
 TEfUlESTMAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 
 
 21 
 
 central attraction. In any of these ways the length of 
 the earth's natural year might have been different from 
 what it now is : in the last way without any necessary 
 alteration, so far as we can see, of temperature. 
 
 Now, if any change of this kind were to take place, 
 the working of the botanical world would be thrown 
 into utter disorder, the functions of plants would be 
 entirely deranged, and the whole vegetable kingdom 
 involved in instant decay and rapid extinction. 
 
 That this would be the case, may be collected from 
 innumerable indications. Most of our fruit trees, for 
 example, require the year to be of its present length. 
 If the summer and the autumn were much shorter, the 
 fruit could not ripen; if these seasons were much 
 longer, the tree would put forth a fresh suit of blossoms, 
 to be 'cut down by the winter. Or if the year were 
 twice its present length, a second crop of fruit would 
 probably not be matured, for want, among other things, 
 of an intermediate season of rest and consohdation, 
 such as the winter is. Our forest trees, in like manner, 
 appear to need all the seasons of our present year for 
 their perfection ; the spring, smnmer, and autumn, for 
 the development of their leaves and consequent iovma- 
 tion of their j>ro29er>ice, and of wood from this; and 
 the winter for the hardening and soHdifying the 
 substance thus formed. 
 
 Most plants, uideed, have some peculiar function 
 adapted to each period of the year, that is of the now 
 existing year. The sap ascends with extraordinary 
 copiousness at two seasons, in the spring and in the 
 autumn, especially the former. The opening of the 
 
 « 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 % 
 
 * 
 
 leaves and the opening of the flowers of ihn same 
 plants are so constant to their times, (their appointed 
 times, as we are naturally led to call them), that 
 such occurrences might be taken as indications of 
 the times of the year. It has been proposed in this 
 way to select a series of botanical facts which should 
 form a calendar ; and this has been termed a calendar 
 of Flora. Thus, if w^e consider the time of jmtting 
 forth leaves,* the honeysuckle protrudes them in the 
 month of January ; the gooseberr}-, cm'rant, and elder 
 in the end of February, or beginning of March ; the 
 willow, elm, and lime-tree in April ; the oak arid ash, 
 which are always the latest among trees, in the begin- 
 ning or towards the middle of May. In the; same 
 manner the flowering has its regular time : the me zereon 
 and snow-drop push forth their flowers in February; 
 tlie primrose in the month of March ; the cowslip in 
 April; the great mass of plants in May and June; 
 many in July, August, and September ; some not till 
 the month of October, as the meadow saffron ; and 
 some not till the approach and arrival of winter, as the 
 laurustinus and arbutus. 
 
 The fact which we have here to notice, is the recur- 
 rence of these stages in the development of plants, 
 at intervals precisely or very nearly of twelve months. 
 Undoubtedly, this result is in part occasioned by the 
 action of external stimulants upon the plant, especially 
 heat, and by the recurrence of the intensity of such 
 agents. Accordingly, there are slight differences in 
 the times of such occurrences, according to the back- 
 
 * Loudon, Encyclopaedia of Gardening, 848. 
 
22 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 
 
 23 
 
 wardness or forwardness of tlie season, and according 
 as tlie climate is genial or otherwise. Gardeners use 
 artifices wliicli will, to a certain extent, accelerate or 
 retard the time of development of a plant. But there 
 are various circumstances which show that this recur- 
 rence of the same events and at equal intervals is not 
 entirely owing to external causes, and that it depends 
 also upon something in the internal structure of 
 vegetahles. Alpine plants do not wait for the stimulus 
 of the sun's heat, but exert such a struggle to blossom, 
 that their flowers are seen among the yet unmelted 
 snow. And this is still more remarkable m the 
 naturaUsation of plants from one hemisphere to the 
 other. When we transplant our fruit trees to the 
 temperate regions south of the equator, they continue 
 for some years to flounsh at the period which corres- 
 ponds to our spring. The reverse of this obtains, with 
 certain trees of the southern hemisphere. Plants from 
 the Cape of Good Hope, and from Australia, countries 
 whose summer is simultaneous with our winter, exhibit 
 their flowers in the coldest part of the year, as the heaths. 
 This view of the subject agi-ees with that maintained 
 by the best botanical writers. Thus DecandoUe obseiwes 
 that after making allowance for all meteorological 
 causes, which determine the epoch of flowering, we 
 must reckon as another cause the peculiar nature of 
 each species. The flowering once determined, appears 
 to be subject to a law oi iKviodicity and habit.^ 
 
 It appears then that the functions of plants have by 
 their nature a periodical character ; and the length of 
 
 * DecandoUe. Physiologic, ii. 478. 
 
 the period thus belonging to vegetables is a rcjsult of 
 their organisation. Warmth and light, soil and moisture, 
 may in some degree modify, and hasten or retard the 
 stages of this period; but when the constraint is 
 removed the natural period is again resumed. Such 
 stimulants as we have mentioned are not the causes of 
 tliis periodicity. They do not produce the varied 
 functions of the plant, and could not occasion their 
 ]3erformance at regular intervals, except the plant pos- 
 sessed a suitable construction. They could not alter 
 the length of the cycle of vegetable functions., except 
 within certain very narrow limits. The proc(iSses of 
 the rising of the sap, of the formation of proper juices, 
 of the unfolding of leaves, the openmg of flowers, the 
 fecundation of the fruit, the ripening of the seed, its 
 proper deposition in order for the reproduction of a 
 new x)lant ; — all these operations require a certain por- 
 tion of time, and could not be compressed into a space 
 less than a year, or at least could not be abbreviated 
 in any very great degree. And on the other hand, if 
 the winter were greatly longer than it now is, many 
 seeds would not germinate at the return of spring. 
 Seeds which have been kept too long require stimulants 
 to make them fertile. 
 
 If, therefore, the duration of the seasons were much 
 to change, the processes of vegetable Kfe would be 
 interrupted, deranged, distempered. What, for iustance, 
 would become of our calendar of Flora, if the year were 
 lengthened or shortened by six months ? Some of the 
 dates would never arrive in the one case, and the vege- 
 table processes which mark them would be superseded ; 
 
24 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE YEAR. 
 
 25 
 
 some seasons would be without dates in tlie other case, 
 and these periods would be emploj^ed in a way hurtful 
 to the plants, and no doubt speedily destructive. We 
 should have not only a year of confusion, but, if it were 
 repeated and continued, a year of death. 
 
 But in the existing state of things, the duration of 
 the earth's revolution round the sun, and the duration 
 of the revolution of the vegetable functions of most 
 plants are equal. These two periods are adjusted to 
 each other. The stimulants which the elements apply 
 come at such intervals, and continue for such times, 
 that the plant is suppoi-ted in health and \igour, and 
 enabled to reproduce its kind. Just such a portion of 
 time is measured out for the vegetable powers to execute 
 their task, as enables them to do so in the best manner. 
 Now such an adjustment must surely be accepted as 
 a proof of design, exercised in the formation of the 
 world. Why should the solar year be so long and no 
 longer ? or, this being of such a length, why should the 
 vegetable cycle be exactly of the same length ? Can 
 this be chance ? And this occurs, it is to he observed, 
 not in one, or in a few species of plants, but in thou- 
 sands. Take a small portion only of known species, 
 as the most obviously endowed with this adjustment, 
 and say ten thousand. How should all these organised 
 bodies be constructed for the same period of a year ? 
 How should all these machines be wound up so as to 
 go for the same time ? Even allowing that they could 
 bear a year of a month longer or shorter, how do they 
 all come within such Hmits ? No chance could produce 
 such a result. And if not by chance, how otherwise 
 
 1 
 
 « 
 
 I 
 
 could such a coincidence occur, than by an intentional 
 adjustment of these two things to one another ? by a 
 selection of such an organisation in i^lants, as would fit 
 them to the earth on which they were to grow ; by an 
 adaptation of construction to conditions ; of thti scale 
 of the construction to the scale of conditions^ 
 
 It cannot be accepted as an explanation of this fact i'^ 
 in the economy of i^lants, that it is necessary to their ^ ^ 
 existence ; that no plants could possibly have subsisted, j,'^^ I 
 and come down to us, except those which were thus;^,4 
 suited to their place on the earth. This is true; but ^H^ 
 this does not at all remove the necessity of recurring "^ 
 to design as the origin of the construction by wliich 
 the existence and continuance of plants is made pos- 
 sible. A watch could not go, except there were the 
 most exact adjustment in the forms and position!^ of its 
 wheels ; jet no one would accept it as an explanation 
 of the origin of such forms and positions, that the 
 w^atch would not go if these were other than they are. 
 If the objector were to sup^Dose that jilants were origi- 
 nally fitted to years of various lengths, and that such 
 only have survived to the present time, as had a cycle 
 of a length equal to our present year, or one wliich 
 could be accommodated to it; we should repl}^, that 
 the assumption is too gratuitous and extravagant to 
 require much consideration ; but that, moreover, it 
 does not remove the difficultv, How" came the functions 
 of plants to be ^x^fiodical at all ? Here is, in the first 
 instance, an agreement in the form of the lav^s that 
 X)revail in the organic and m the inorganic world, 
 wliich appears to us a clear evidence of design in their 
 
26 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE YEAE. 
 
 27 
 
 'I . 
 
 Author. And the same kind of reply might be made 
 to any similar objection to our argument. Any suppo- 
 sitioi]i tjiat the universe has graduaUy approximated to 
 that state of harmony among the operations of its 
 different parts, of which we have one instance m the 
 coincidence now under consideration, would make it 
 necessary for the objector to assume a previous state 
 of things preparatory to this perfect correspondence. 
 And in this preparatory condition we should still be 
 able to trace the rudiments of that harmony, for which 
 it was proposed to account : so that even the most 
 unbounded Hcense of hji^othesis would not enable the 
 opponent to obhterate the traces of an intentional 
 adaptation of one part of nature to another. 
 
 Nor would it at all affect the argument, if these 
 periodical occurrences could be traced to some proxi- 
 mate cause : if for instance it could be shown, that the 
 budding or flowering of plants is brought about at 
 particular intervals, by tlie nutriment accumulated in » 
 their vessels during the preceding months. For the 
 question would still remain, how their functions were 
 so adjusted, that the accumulation of the nutriment 
 necessary for budding and flowering, together with the 
 operation itself, comes to occupy exactly a year, instead 
 of a month only, or ten years. There must be in their 
 structure some reference to time: how did such a 
 reference occur ? how was it determined to the par- 
 ticular time of the earth's revolution round the sun? 
 This could be no otherwise, as we conceive, than by 
 design and appointment. 
 
 "We are left therefore with this manifest adjustment 
 
 % 
 
 before us, of two parts of the universe at first sight so 
 remote ; the dimensions of the solar system and the 
 powers of vegetable life. These two tilings are so 
 related, that one has been made to fit the other. The 
 relation is as clear as that of a watch to a sundial. If 
 a person were to compare the watch with a dial, hour 
 after hour, and day after day, it would be impossible 
 for him not to believe that the watch had been contrived 
 to accommodate itself to the solar day. We have at 
 least tfen'^ilioD^sand kinds of vegetable watches of the 
 most various forms, which are all accommodated to 
 the solar year ; and the evidence of contrivance seems 
 to be no more capable of being eluded in this case than 
 m the other. 
 
 The same kind of argument might be applied to the 
 animal creation. The pairing, nesting, hatching, fledg- 
 ing, and flight of birds, for instance, occupy each its 
 pecuHar time of the year; and, together with a proper 
 period of rest, fill up the twelve months. The trans- 
 formations of most insects have a similar reference to 
 the seasons, their progress and duration. " In every 
 species" (except man's), says a writer* on animals, 
 " there is a particular period of the year in which the 
 reproductive system exercises its energies. And the 
 season of love and the period of gestation oxe so ar- 
 ranged that the young ones are produced at the time 
 wherein the conditions of temperature are most suited 
 to the commencement of life." It is not our business here 
 to consider the details of such provisions, beautiful and 
 striking as they are. But the prevalence of the gi'eat law 
 
 * Fleming. Zool. i. 400. 
 
28 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE DAY. 
 
 29 
 
 of periodicity in the vital functions of organised beings 
 will be allowed to have a claim to be considered in its 
 reference to astronomy, when it is seen that their 
 periodical constitution derives its use from the periodical 
 natm-e of the motions of the planets round the sun ; and 
 that the duration of such cycles in the existence of plants 
 and animals has a reference to the arbitrary elements 
 of the solar system : a reference which, we maintain, is 
 inexplicable and unintelHgible, except by admitting into 
 our conceptions an intelligent Author, ahke of the 
 organic and inorganic universe. 
 
 Chap. IL—TJie Length of i he Bay. 
 
 "We shall now consider another astronomical element, 
 the time of the revolution of the earth on its axis ; and 
 we shall find here also that the structure of organised 
 bodies is suited to this element ;— that the cosmical and 
 physiological arrangements are adapted to each other. 
 
 We can very easily conceive the earth to revolve on 
 her axis faster or slower than she does, and thus the 
 days to be longer or shorter than they are, without 
 supposing any other change to take place. There is no 
 apparent reason why this globe should turn on its axis 
 just three hundred and sixty-six times while it de- 
 scribes its orbit round the sun. The revolutions of the 
 other planets, so far as we know them, do not appear 
 to follow any rule by which they are connected with 
 the distance from the sun. Mercury, Venus, and 
 Mars have days nearly the length of ours. Jupiter and 
 Saturn revolve in about ten hours each. For anything 
 
 we can discover, the earth might have revolved in tliis 
 or any other smaller period ; or we might have; had, 
 without mechanical inconvenience, much longer days 
 than we have. 
 
 But the terrestrial day, and consequently the length 
 of the cycle of light and darkness, being what it is, we 
 find various parts of the constitution both of animals 
 and vegetables, which have a periodical character in 
 their functions, corresponding to the diurnal succession 
 of external conditions ; and Ave find that the length of 
 the period, as it exists in tlieir constitution, coincides 
 with the lengih of the natural day. 
 * The alternation of processes which takes place in 
 a plants by day and by night is less obvious, and less 
 obviously essential to their well-being, than the annual 
 series of changes. But there are abundance ol' facts 
 which serve to show that such an alternation is part of 
 the vegetable economy. 
 
 In the same manner in which Linneeus proposed a 
 Calendar of Flora, he also proi)osed a Dial of .Flora, 
 or Flower- Clock ; and this was to consist, as will readily 
 be supposed, of j^lants, which mark certain hours of 
 the day, by opening and shutting their flowers. Thus 
 the day-lily {hemerocallis fulva) opens at five in the 
 morning ; the leontodon taraxacum, or common dande- 
 lion, at five or six ; the hieracium latifolium (hawkweed), 
 at seven ; the hieracium jnlosella at eight ; the calendula 
 arvensis, or marigold, at nine ; the mesemhryanthemum 
 neapolitanum, at ten or eleven : and the closing of these 
 and other flowers in the latter part of the day offers a 
 similar system of hour marks. 
 
30 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE DAY. 
 
 31 
 
 m 
 
 Some of these plants are thus expanded in con- 
 sequence of the stimulating action of the Hght and 
 heat of the day, as appears by theii' changing their 
 time, when these influences are changed; but others 
 appear to be constant to the same hours, and indepen- 
 dent of the impulse of such external circumstances. 
 Other flowers, by their opening and shutting, prognos- 
 ticate tlie weather. Plants of the latter kind are called 
 by Linnseus meteoric flowers, as being regulated by 
 atmospheric causes : those which change their hour of 
 opening and shutting with the length of the day, he 
 terms tropical ; and the hours which they measure are, 
 he observes, lilvc Tm-kish hours, of varying length at 
 different seasons. But there are other plants which 
 he terms equinoctial; their vegetable days, like the 
 days of the equator, being always of equal length ; and 
 these open, and generally close, at a fixed and positive 
 hour of the day. Such plants clearly prove that the 
 periodical character, and the period of the motions 
 above described, do not depend altogether on external 
 cii'cumstances. 
 
 Some ciuious experiments on this subject were made 
 by Decandolle. He kept certain plants m two cellars, 
 one warmed by a stove and dark, the other lighted by 
 lamps. On some of the plants the artificial light 
 appeared to have no influence (convolvulm arvensis, 
 convolvulus cneorum, silene fruticosa), and they still 
 followed the clock hours in their opening and closing. 
 The night-blowing plants appeared somewhat disturbed, 
 both by perpetual light and perpetual darkness. In 
 either condition they accelerated their going so much, 
 
 1 
 
 that^in three days they had gained half a day, and thus 
 exchanged night for day as theii' time of opeuing. 
 Other flowers ivent shiver in the ai'tificial light {con- 
 volvulus purimreus). In like manner those plants 
 which fold and unfold their leaves were variously 
 affected by this mode of treatment. The oxalis stricta 
 and oxalis incarnata kept their habits, mthout regarding 
 either artificial light or heat. The mimosa leucocephala 
 folded and unfolded at the usual times, whether in 
 light or in darkness, but the folding up was not so 
 complete as in the open air. The mimosa pvdica 
 (sensitive plant), kept in darkness during the day time, 
 and illuminated during the night, had in three days 
 accommodated herself to the artificial state, opening in 
 the evening and closing in the morning; restored to 
 the oi)en air, she recovered her usual habits. 
 
 Tropical plants in general, as is remarked by our 
 gardeners, suffer from the length of our summei^ day- 
 light ; and it has been found necessary to shade them 
 during a certain part of the day. 
 
 It is clear from these facts, that there is a diimiial 
 period belonging to the constitution of vegetables; 
 though the succession of functions depends in x^iu-t on 
 external stimulants, as light and heat, their periodical 
 character is a result of the structure of the plant ; and 
 this structure is such, that the length of the period, 
 under the common influences to which plants are 
 exposed, coincides with the astronomical day. The 
 power of accommodation wliich vegetables possess in 
 this respect, is far from being such as either to leave 
 the existence of this periodical constitution doubtful, 
 
33 
 
 TERUESTHIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LENGTH OF THE DAY. 
 
 33 
 
 fl 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 or to entitle us to suppose that the day might be con- 
 siderably lengthened or shortened without injury to the 
 vegetable kingdom. 
 
 Here, then, we have an adaptation between the 
 structure of plants and the periodical order of light 
 and darkness which arises from the earth's rotation; 
 and we find, moreover, that the arbitrary quantity in 
 the two laws, the length of the cycle of the physiological 
 and of the astronomical fact, is the same. Can this 
 have occurred any otherwise than by an intentional 
 adjustment ? 
 
 Any supposition that the astronomical cycle has 
 occasioned the physiological one, that the structure of 
 plants has been brought to be what it is by the action 
 of external causes, or that such x>lants as could not 
 accommodate themselves to the existing day liave 
 perished, would be not only an arbitrary and baseless 
 assumption, but, moreover, useless for the purposes of 
 explanation which it professes, as we have noticed of a 
 similar supi)osition with respect to the annual cycle. 
 How came plants to have i3eriodicity at all in those 
 functions which have a relation to light and darkness ? 
 This part of their constitution was suited to organised 
 things which were to flomish on the eaiih, and it is 
 accordingly bestowed on them; it was necessary for 
 this end that the period should be of a certain length ; 
 it is of that length and no other. Sm^ely this looks 
 like intentional provision. 
 
 Animals also have a x^eriod in their functions and 
 habits; as in the habits of waking, sleeping, eating, 
 &c., and their well-being appears to depend on the 
 
 coincidence of this period with the length of the natural 
 day. We see that in the day, as it now is, all animals 
 find seasons for taking food and repose, which agree 
 perfectly with their health and comfort. Some animals 
 feed dming the day, as nearly all the ruminating 
 luiimals and land birds ; others feed only in the twilight, 
 as bats and owls, and are called crepuscular ; while 
 many beasts of prey, aquatic birds, and others, take 
 their food dm-ing the night. Those animals whicli are 
 nocturnal feeders are diurnal sleepers, while those 
 which are crepuscular sleep partly in the night and 
 partly in the day; but in all the complete period of 
 these fmictions is twenty-four hours. Man, in like 
 manner, in all nations and ages, takes his principal 
 rest once in twenty-four hours ; and the regularity of 
 this practice seems most suitable to his health, though 
 the dm-ation of the time allotted to repose is extremely 
 different in different cases. So far as we can judge, 
 this period is of a length beneficial to the human 
 frame, independently of the effect of external agents. 
 In the voyages recently made into high northern lati- 
 tudes, where the sun did not rise for three months, 
 the crews of the ships were made to adhere, witli the 
 utmost punctuahty to the habit of retiring to rest at 
 nine, and rising a quarter before six; and they enjoyed, 
 imder cu'cumstances apparently the most trying, a 
 state of salubrity quite remarkable. This shows, that 
 according to the common constitution of such men, the 
 cycle of twenty-four hours is very commodious, though 
 not imposed on them by external circumstances. 
 
 The hours of food and repose are capable of such 
 
 '^•■ 
 
 i 
 
 i:.,^. 
 
 ,-tt» 
 
34 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 35 
 
 wide modifications in animals, and above all in man, 
 by the influence of external stimulants and internal 
 emotions, that it is not easy to distinguish what 
 portion of the tendency to such alternations depends on 
 original constitution. Yet no one can doubt that the 
 inclination to food and sleep is periodical, or can 
 maintain, mth any plausibility, that the period may 
 be lengthened or shortened without limit. We may be 
 tolerably certain that a constantly recm^ring period 
 of forty-eight hours would be too long for one day of 
 employment and one period of sleep, with our present 
 faculties; and all, whose bodies and minds are tolerably 
 active, will probably agree that, independently of habit, 
 a perpetual alternation of eight hours up and four in 
 bed would employ the human powers less advantage- 
 ously and agreeably than an alternation of sixteen and 
 eight. A creature which could employ the full energies 
 of his body and mind uninterruptedly for nine months, 
 and then take a single sleep of tlii-ee montlis, would not 
 be a man. 
 
 When, therefore, we have subtracted from the daily 
 cycle of the employments of men and animals, that 
 which is to be set down to the account of habits 
 acquired, and that which is occasioned by extraneous 
 causes, there still remains a i)eriodical character ; and 
 a period of a certain length, which coincides with, or 
 at any rate easily accommodates itself to, tlie duration 
 of the earth's revolution. The physiological analysis 
 of this part of our constitution is not necessary for our 
 purpose. The succession of exertion and repose in 
 the muscular system, of excited and dormant sensibility 
 
 1 
 
 in the nervous, appear to be fundamentally connejcted 
 with the muscular and nervous powers, whatevei" the 
 nature of these may be. The necessity of these alter- 
 nations is one of the measures of the intensity of those 
 vital energies ; and it would seem that we cannot, 
 without assuming the human powers to be altered, 
 suppose the intervals of tranquillity which they re(iuire 
 to be much changed. This view agrees with the 
 opinion of some of tlie most eminent physiologists. 
 Thus Cabanis* notices the periodical and isochronous 
 character of the desire of sleep, as well as of other 
 appetites. He states also that sleep is more easj' and 
 more salutary, in proportion as we go to rest and rise 
 every day at the same hom's ; and observes that this 
 periodicity seems to have a reference to the motioas of 
 the solar system. 
 
 Now how should such a reference be at first esta- 
 blished in the constitution of man, animals, and plants, 
 and transmitted from one generation of them tc' an- 
 other ? If we suppose a wise and benevolent Creator, 
 by whom all the parts of nature were fitted to their 
 uses and to each other, this is what we might expect 
 and can understand. On any other supposition, such 
 a fact appears altogether incredible and inconceivable. 
 
 Chap. IIL—The Mass of the Earth. 
 
 We shall now consider the adaptation which may, as 
 we conceive, be traced in the amount of some of the 
 quantities which determine the course of events iix the 
 
 * Rapports du Physique et du Moral de 1' Homme, ii. 371. 
 
 D 2 
 
 ku 
 
86 
 
 TEURESTIIIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 37 
 
 11 
 
 organic world; and especially in the amount of the 
 forces which are in action. The life of vegetahles and 
 animals implies a constant motion of their fluid parts, 
 and this motion must be produced by forces whicli 
 urge or draw the particles of the fluids. The positions 
 of tlie parts of vegetables are also the result of the 
 flexibility and elasticity of their substance ; the volun- 
 tary motions of animals are produced by the tension of 
 the muscles. But, in all those cases, the effect really 
 produced depends upon the force of gravity also ; and 
 in order that the motions and positions may be such 
 as answer their purpose, the forces which produce them 
 must have a due proportion to the force of gravity. In 
 human works — if, for instance, we have a fluid to raise, 
 or a weight to move — some calculation is requisite, in 
 order to determine the power wliich we must use, 
 relatively to the work which is to be done : we have a 
 mechanical problem to solve, in order that we may 
 adjust the one to the other. And the same adjustment, 
 the same result of a comparison of quantities, manifests 
 itself in the relation which the forces of the organic 
 world bear to the force of gravity. 
 
 The force of gravity might, so far as we can judge, 
 have been different from what it now is. It depends 
 upon the mass of the earth ; and this mass is one of the 
 elements of the solar system, which is not determined 
 by any cosmical necessity of which we are aware. The 
 masses of the several planets are very different, and do 
 not appear to follow any determinate rule, except that 
 upon the whole those nearer to the sun appear to be 
 smaller, and those nearer the outskirts of the system 
 
 to be larger. We cannot see anything which would 
 have prevented either the size or the density oi the 
 eai-th from being different, to a very great extent, from 
 what they are. 
 
 Now, it will be very obvious that if the intensity of 
 gravity were to be much increased or much diminished, 
 if every object were to become twice as heavy or only 
 half as heavy as it now is, all the forces both of 
 involuntary and voluntary motion, which produce the 
 present orderly and suitable results by being properly 
 proportioned to the resistance which they experience, 
 would be thrown off their balance ; they would produce 
 motions too quick or too slow, wrong positions, jerks 
 and stops, instead of steady, well-conducted movements. 
 The universe would be like a machine ill regulated ; 
 everything would go wrong ; repeated collisions and a 
 rapid disorganisation must be the consequence. We 
 "vsill, how^ever, attempt to illustrate one or two of the 
 cases in which this would take place, by pointing out 
 forces which act in the organic world, and which are 
 adjusted to the force of gravity. 
 
 I. The first instance we shall take is the force 
 manifested by the ascent of the sap in vegetables. It 
 appears, by a multitude of indisputable experiments 
 (among the rest those of Hales, Mirbel, and Dutrochet), 
 that all plants imbibe moisture by their roots, and 
 'pumjp it up, by some internal force, into every jiart of 
 their frame, distributing it into every leaf. It will 
 easily be conceived that this operation must require a 
 very considerable mechanical force ; for the fluid must 
 be sustained as if it were a single column reaching to 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 'id I 
 
 38 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 39 
 
 the top of the tree. The division into minute parts, 
 and distribution through small vessels, does not at all 
 diminish the total force requisite to raise it. If, for 
 instance, the tree be thirty-three feet high, the pressure 
 must be fifteen pounds upon every square inch in the 
 section of the vessels of the bottom, in order merely to 
 support the sap. And it is not only supported, but 
 propelled upwards with gTeat force, so as to supply the 
 constant evaporation of the leaves. The pumping power 
 of the tree must therefore be very considerable. 
 
 That this power is great, has been confirmed by 
 various curious experiments, especially by those of 
 Hales. He measured the force with which the stems 
 and branches of trees draw the fluid from below, and 
 push it upwards. He found, for instance, that a vine 
 in the bleeding season could push up its sap in a glass 
 tube to the height of twenty-one feet above the stump 
 of an amputated branch. 
 
 The force which produces this effect is part of the 
 economy of the vegetable world ; and it is clear that 
 the due operation of the force depends upon its being 
 rightly proportioned to the force of gravity. The 
 weight of the fluid must be counterbalanced, and an 
 access of force must exist to produce the motion 
 upwards. In the common course of vegetable Hfe, the 
 rate of ascent of the sap is regulated, on the one hand, 
 by the upward pressure of the vegetable power, and on 
 the other, by the amount of the gravity of the fluid, 
 along with the other resistances, which are to be over- 
 come. If, therefore, we suppose gravity to increase, 
 the rapidity of this vegetable circulation will diminish, 
 
 i 
 
 and the rate at which this function proceeds wiU not 
 correspond either to the com'se of the seasons, or the 
 other physiological processes with which this has to 
 co-operate. We might easily conceive such an increase 
 of gi-avity as would stop the vital movements of the 
 plant in a very short time. In like manner, a dimi- 
 nution of the gravity of the vegetable juices would 
 accelerate the rising of the sap, and would probably 
 hurry and overload the leaves and other organs, so as 
 to interfere with their due operation. Some injurious 
 change, at least, would take place. 
 
 Here, then, we have the forces of the minutest ])arts 
 of vegetables adjusted to the magnitude of the \\ hole 
 mass of the earth on which they exist. There is no 
 apparent connection between the quantity of matter of 
 the earth, and the force of imbibition of the roots of a 
 vme, or the force of propulsion of the vessels of its 
 branches. Yet these things have such a proporti(m as 
 the wellbeing of the vine requires. How is this to be 
 accounted for, but by supposing that the circumstimces 
 under which the vine was to grow were attended to in 
 devising its structure ? 
 
 We have not here pretended to decide whether this 
 force of propulsion of vegetables is mechanical or not, 
 because the argument is the same for our purpose on 
 either supposition. Some very curious experiments 
 have recently been made (by M. Dutrochet), which are 
 supposed to show that the force is mechanical; that 
 when two different fluids are separated by a thin mem- 
 brane, a force, which M. Dutrochet calls endosmose, 
 ui'ges one fluid tlirough the membrane : and that the 
 
m 
 
 :il 
 
 4C 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 41 
 
 m 
 
 i! 
 
 roots of plants are pro^iclecl with small vesicles wliicli 
 act the part of such a membrane. M. Poisson has 
 further attempted to show that this force of endosmose 
 may be considered as a particular modification of capil- 
 lary action. If these views be true, we have here two 
 mechanical forces, capillary action and gravity, which 
 are adjusted to each other in the manner precisely 
 suited to the welfare of vegetables. 
 
 II. As another instance of adaptation between the force 
 of gravity and forces which exist in the vegetable world, 
 we may take tlie positions of flowers. Some flowers 
 grow with the hollow of their cup upwards : others, 
 "hang the pensive head" and turn the opening do\Nai- 
 wards. Now of these " nodding flowers," as Linngeus 
 calls them, he observes that they are such as have their 
 pistil longer than the stamens ; and, in consequence of 
 this position, the dust from the anthers, which are at 
 the end of the stamens, can fall upon the stigma or 
 extremity of the pistil ; which process is requisite for 
 making the flower fertile. He gives as instances the 
 flowers campanula, leucoium, galanthus, fritillaria. 
 Other botanists have remarked that the position 
 changes at different periods of the flower's progress. 
 The pistil of the Euphorbia (which is a little globe or 
 germen on a slender stalk) gi'ows upright at first, and 
 is taller than the stamens : at the i)eriod suited to its 
 fecundation, the stalk bends under the weight of the 
 ball at its extremity, so as to depress the germen below 
 the stamens : after this it again becomes erect, the 
 globe bemg now a fruit filled with fertile seeds. 
 
 The positions in all these cases depend upon the 
 
 r^' 
 
 m. 
 
 length and flexibility of the stalk which supports the 
 flower, or, in the case of the Euphorbia, the germen. 
 It is clear that a very slight alteration in the force of 
 oravity, or in the stiffness of the staUc, would entirely 
 alter the position of the flower cup, and thus make the 
 continuation of the species impossible. We have 
 therefore here a Httle mechanical contrivance, vrliicli 
 would have been frustrated if the proper intensiity of 
 gravity had not been assumed in the reckoning. An 
 earth greater or smaller, denser or rarer than the one 
 on which we live, would require a change in the struc- 
 ture and strength of the footstalks of aU the little 
 flowers that hang their heads under our hedges. There 
 is something curious in thus considering the whole mass 
 of the earth from pole to pole, and from circumference 
 to centre, as employed in keeping a snowdrop in the 
 position most suited to the promotion of its veg(jtable 
 health. 
 
 It would be easy to mention many other parts of the 
 economy of vegetable life, which depend for their use 
 on their adaptation to the force of gravity. Su(;h are 
 the forces and conditions which determine the positions 
 of leaves and of branches. Such, again, those parts of 
 the vegetable constitution which have reference to the 
 pressure of the atmosphere; for differences in this 
 pressure appear to exercise a powerful influence on 
 the functions of plants, and to require differences of 
 structure. But we pass over these considerations. 
 The slightest attention to the relations of natural 
 objects wdll show that the subject is inexhaustible ; 
 and all that we can or need do is to give a few 
 
42 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS S. 
 
 MASS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 43 
 
 m 
 
 1 n|l 
 
 \w 
 
 examples, such as may show the nature of the 
 impression which the examination of the universe 
 produces. 
 
 III. Another instance of the adjustment of organic 
 structm'e to the force of gravity may he pomted out 
 in the muscular powers of animals. If the force of 
 gravity were increased in any considerable proportion 
 at the surface of the earth, it is manifest that all the 
 swiftness, and strength, and grace of animal motions 
 must disappear. If, for instance, the earth were as large 
 as Jupiter, gi^avity would be eleven times what it is ; the 
 lightness of the fawn, the speed of the hare, the spring 
 of the tiger, could no longer exist with the existing 
 muscular powers of those animals ; for man to lift 
 himseK upright, or to crawl from place to i)lace, would 
 be a labour slower and more painful than the motions 
 of the slotli. The density and pressure of the air, too, 
 would be increased to an intolerable extent, and the 
 operation of respiration, and others, whicli depend 
 upon these mechanical properties, would be rendered 
 laborious, ineffectual, and probably impossible. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the force of gravity were much 
 lessened, inconveniences of an opposite kind would 
 occur. The air would be too thin to breathe; the 
 weight of our bodies, and of all the substances sur- 
 rounding us, would become too slight to resist the 
 perpetually occurring causes of derangement and 
 unsteadiness : we should feel a want of ballast in our 
 movements. 
 
 It has sometimes been maintained by fanciful 
 theorists that the earth is merely a shell, and that 
 
 the central parts are hollow. All the reasons we can 
 collect appear to be in favour of its being a solid mass, 
 considerably denser than any known rock. If this be 
 so, and if we suppose the interior to be at any time 
 scooped out, so as to leave only such a shell as the 
 above-mentioned speculators have imagined, we should 
 not be left in ignorance of the change, though the 
 appearance of the surface might remain the same. 
 We should discover the want of the usual force of 
 gravity, by the instability of all about us. Things 
 would not lie where we x)laced them, but would slide 
 away with the slightest push. We should ha\e a 
 difficulty in standing or walldng, something like 
 what we have on ship -board when the deck is in- 
 clined ; and we should stagger helplessly through an 
 atmosphere thinner than that which oppresses the 
 respiration of the traveller on the tops of the highest 
 mountains. 
 
 We see therefore that those dark and unknown 
 central portions of the earth, which are placed far 
 beyond the reach of the miner and the geologist, and 
 of which man will probably never know anything 
 dii^ectly, are not to be considered as quite discon- 
 nected with us, as deposits of useless lumber without 
 effect or purpose. We feel their influence on every 
 step we take and on every breath we draw ; and the 
 powers we possess, and the comforts we enjoy \\ould 
 be unprofitable to us, if they had not been prej>ared 
 with a reference to those as well as to the near and 
 visible portions of the earth's mass. 
 
 The arbitrary quantity, therefore, of which we have 
 
44 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MAGNITUDE OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 45 
 
 been treating, the intensity of the force of gravity, 
 appears to have been taken account of, in establishing 
 the laws of those forces by which the processes of 
 vegetable and animal life are carried on. And this 
 leads us inevitably, we conceive, to the belief of a 
 supreme contri\ing mind, by which these laws were 
 thus devised and thus established. 
 
 Chap. IV. — The Magnitude of the Ocean. 
 
 There are several arbitrary quantities which contri- 
 bute to detennine the state of things at the earth's 
 surface besides those abeady mentioned. Some of 
 these w^e shall briefly refer to, without pursuing the 
 subject into detail. We wish not only to show that 
 the properties and processes of vegetable and animal 
 life must be adjusted to each of these quantities in 
 particular, but also to point out how numerous and 
 complicated the conditions of the existence of organised 
 beings are; and we shall thus be led to think less 
 inadequately of the intelligence which has embraced 
 at once, and combined without confusion, all these 
 conditions. We appear thus to be conducted to the 
 conviction not only of design and intention, but of 
 supreme knowledge and wisdom. 
 
 One of the quantities which enters into the consti- 
 tution of the terrestrial system of things is the bulk of 
 the waters of the ocean. The mean depth of the sea, 
 according to the calculations of Laplace, is four or five 
 miles. On this supposition, the addition to the sea of 
 one -fourth of the existing waters would drown the 
 
 whole of the globe, except a few chains of mountains. 
 Whether this be exact or no, we can easily conceive 
 the quantity of water which lies in the cavities of our 
 globe to be greater or less than it at present is. With 
 every such addition or subtraction the form and magni- 
 tude of the dry land would vary, and if this change 
 were considerable, many of the present relations of 
 things would be altered. It may be sufficient to 
 mention one effect of such a change. The sources 
 which water the earth, both clouds, rains and rivers, 
 are mainly fed by the aqueous vapour raised from the 
 sea ; and therefore if the sea were much dimiuished, 
 and the land increased, the mean quantity of moisture 
 distributed upon the land must be diminished, and the 
 character of climates, as to wet and drj^ must be 
 materially affected. Similar, but opposite changes 
 Avould result from the increase of the surface of the 
 ocean. 
 
 It appears then that the magnitude of the ocean is 
 one of the conditions to which the structure of all 
 organised beings which are dependent upon climate 
 must be adapted. 
 
 Chap. V. — Tlie Magnitude of the Atmosphere. 
 
 The total quantity of air of w^liich our atmosphere is 
 composed is another of the arbitrary magnitudes of 
 our terrestrial system; and w^e may apply to this 
 subject considerations similar to those of the last 
 section. We can see no reason why the atmosphere 
 might not have been larger in comparison to the globe 
 
46 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 which it surrounds ; those of Mars and Jupiter appear 
 to be so. But if the quantity of air were increased, 
 the structure of organised beings would in many ways 
 cease to be adapted to their place. The atmospheric 
 pressure, for instance, would be increased, which, as 
 we have abeady noticed, would requke an alteration 
 in the structure of vegetables. 
 
 Another way in which an increase of the mass of 
 the atmosphere would produce inconvenience would be 
 in the force of winds. If the current of aii* in a strong 
 gale were doubled or tripled, as might be the case if 
 the atmosphere were augmented, the destructive effects 
 would be more than doubled or tripled. With such a 
 change, nothing could stand against a storm. In 
 general, houses and trees resist the violence of the 
 wind ; and except in extreme cases, as for instance, in 
 occasional hurricanes in the West Indies, a few large 
 trees in a forest are unusual trophies of the power of 
 the tempest. The breezes which we commonly feel 
 are harmless messengers, travelling so as to bring about 
 the salutaiy changes of the atmosphere; even the 
 motion which they communicate to vegetables tends to 
 promote their growth, and is so advantageous, that it 
 has been proposed to imitate it by artificial breezes in 
 the hothouse. But with a stream of wind blowing 
 against them, like three, or five, or ten, gales compressed 
 into the space of one, none of the existing trees could 
 stand; and except they could either bend like rushes 
 in a stream, or extend their roots far wider than their 
 branches, they must be torn up in whole groves. We 
 have thus a manifest adaptation of the present usual 
 
 CLIMATES. 
 
 47 
 
 strength of the materials and of the workmanship of 
 the world to the stress of wind and weather wliich they 
 have to sustain. 
 
 Chap. VI, — The Constanoj and Variety of Climafet;. 
 
 It is possible to conceive arrangements of our system, 
 according to which all parts of the earth might have 
 the same, or nearly the same, climate. If, for 
 example, we suppose the earth to be a flat disk, or 
 flat ring, like the ring of Saturn, revolving in its own 
 plane as that does, each part of both the flat surfaces 
 would have the same exposure to the sun, and the 
 same temperature, so far as the sun's effect is con- 
 cerned. There is no obvious reason why a planet of , 
 such a form might not be occupied by animals and 
 vegetables, as well as our present earth ; and on this 
 supposition the climate would be everj^wliere the 
 same, and the whole surface might be covered 
 with life, without the necessity of there being any 
 difference in the kind of inhabitants belonging to 
 different parts. 
 
 Again, it is possible to conceive arrangements 
 according to which no part of our planet should have 
 any steady climate. This may probably be the case 
 with a comet. If we suppose such a body, revolving 
 round the sun in a very oblong ellipse, to be of small 
 size and of a very high temperature, and therefore to 
 cool rapidly; and if we suppose it also to be su:rrounded 
 by a large atmosphere, composed of various gases; 
 there would, on the surface of such a bod}% be no 
 
48 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIO^S. 
 
 average cUmate or seasons for each place. The years, 
 if we give this name to the intervals of time occupied 
 by its ''successive revolutions, would be entirely unlike 
 one another. The greatest heat of one year might be 
 cool compared with the greatest cold of a preceding 
 one. The greatest heats and colds might succeed each 
 other at intervals perpetually unequal. The atmos- 
 phere might be perpetually changing its composition 
 by the condensation of some of its constituent gases. 
 In the operations of the elements, all would be inces- 
 sant and rapid change, without recurrence or compen- 
 sation. We cannot say that organised beings could 
 not be fitted for such a habitation ; but if they were, 
 the adaptation must be made by means of a consti- 
 . tution quite different from that of almost all organ- 
 ised beings known to us. 
 
 The state of things upon the earth, in its present 
 condition, is very different from both these supposi- 
 tions. The climate of the same place, notwithstanding 
 perpetual and apparently hregular change, possesses 
 a remarkable steadiness. And, though in different 
 places the annual succession of appearances in the 
 earth and heavens, is, in some of its main characters, 
 the same, the result of these influences in the average 
 chmate is very different. 
 
 Now, to tliis remarkable constitution of the earth as 
 to climate, the constitution of the animal and vegetable 
 world is precisely adapted. The differences of different 
 climates are provided for by the existence of entu^ely 
 different classes of plants and animals in different 
 countries, xae constancy of climate at the same place 
 
 CLIMATES. 
 
 49 
 
 is a necessary condition of the prosperity of each 
 species there fixed. 
 
 We shall illustrate by a few details, these character- 
 istics in the constitution of inorganic and of organic 
 nature, with the view of fixing the reader's attention 
 upon the correspondence of the two. 
 
 I. The succession and alternation, at any given place, 
 of heat and cold, rain and sunshine, wind and calm, 
 and other atmospheric changes, appear at first sight to 
 be extremely irregular, and not subject to any law. It 
 is, however, easy to see, with a little attention, that 
 there is a certain degree of constancy in the average 
 weather and seasons of each place, though the pfirticular 
 facts of which these generahties are made up seem to 
 be out of the reach of fixed laws. And when we apply 
 any numerical measure to these particular occurrences, 
 and take the average of the numbers thus observed, 
 we generally find a remarkably close correspondence 
 in the numbers belonging to the whole, or to analogous 
 portions of successive years. This will be found to 
 apply to the measures given by the thermometer, the 
 barometer, the hygrometer, the raingage, and similar 
 instruments. Thus it is found that very hot summers, 
 or very cold winters, raise or depress the mean annual 
 temperature very little above or below the general 
 standard. 
 
 The heat may be expressed by degrees of the 
 thermometer ; the temperature of the day is estimated 
 by this measure taken at a certam period of the day, 
 which period has been found by experience to correspond 
 ^^ith the daily average ; and the mean annual tempera- 
 
50 TEKRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 ture will then be the average of all the heights of the 
 thermometer so taken for every day in the year. 
 
 The mean annual temperature of London, thus 
 measured, is about 50 degrees and 4-lOths. The frost 
 of the year 1788 was so severe that the Thames was 
 passable on the ice ; the mean temperature of that 
 yeai' was 50 degrees and 6-lOths, being within a small 
 fraction of a degree of the standard. In 1796, when 
 the greatest cold ever observed in London occurred, 
 the mean temperature of the year was 50 degrees and 
 1-lOth, which is Hkewise within a fraction of a degree 
 of the standard. In the severe winter of 1813-14, 
 when the Thames, Tyne, and other large rivers in 
 England were completely frozen over, the mean tem- 
 perature of the two years was 49 degrees, being little 
 more than a degree below the standard. And in the 
 year 1808, when the summer was so hot that the 
 temperature in London was as high as 93^ degrees, 
 the mean heat of the year was 50^, which is about that 
 
 of the standard. 
 
 The same numerical indications of the constancy 
 of climate at the same place might be collected from 
 the records of other instruments of the kind above 
 mentioned. 
 
 We shall, hereafter, consider some of the very 
 complex agencies by which this steadiness is produced ; 
 and shall endeavour to point out intentional adaptations 
 to this object. But we may, in the meantime, observe 
 how this property of the atmospheric changes is made 
 subservient to a further object. 
 
 To this constancy of the chmates of each place, the 
 
 CLIMATES. 
 
 51 
 
 structure of plants is adapted ; almost all vegetables 
 require a particular mean temperature of the year, or 
 of some season of the year, a particular (legi*ee of 
 moisture, and similar conditions. This will be seen 
 by observing that the range of most plants as to climate 
 is very limited. A vegetable which flourishes where 
 the mean temperature is 55 degrees, would pine and 
 wither when removed to a region where the average is 
 50 degrees. If, therefore, the average at each place 
 were to vary as much as this, our plants with their 
 present constitutions would suffer, languish, and soon 
 die. 
 
 II. It will be readily understood that the same mode 
 of measurement by which we learn the constancy of 
 climate at the same place, serves to show us the 
 variety which belongs to different places. While the 
 variations of the same region vanish when we take the 
 averages even of moderate periods, those of distant 
 countries are fixed and perpetual ; and stand out more 
 clear and distinct, the longer is the interval lor which 
 we measure their operation. 
 
 In the way of measuring already described, the mean 
 temperature of Petersburg is 39 degrees, of Home 60, 
 of Cairo, 72. Such observations as these, and others 
 of the same kind, have been made at various places, 
 collected and recorded ; and in this way the sui'face of 
 the earth can be divided by boundary hues into various 
 strips, according to these physical differences. Thus, 
 the zones which take in aU the places having the same 
 or nearly the same mean annual temperature, have 
 been called isothermal zones. These zones ri;in nearly 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIOKS. 
 
 pai-allel to the equator, but not exactly, for, m Europe, 
 they bend to the north in going eastward. In the 
 same manner, the lines passing through aU places 
 which have an equal temperature for the summer or 
 the winter half of the year, have been caUed respectively 
 isotheral and isockimal Imes. These do not comcide 
 with the isothermal lines, for a place may have the 
 same temperatui^e as another, though its summer be 
 hotter and its winter colder, as is the case of Pekm 
 compared with London. In the same way we might 
 conceive lines drawn according to conditions depending 
 on clouds, rain, wind, and the like circumstances, if we 
 had observations enough to enable us to lay down such 
 Hues. The course of vegetation depends upon the 
 combined influence of all such conditions ; and the 
 lines wliich bound the spread of particular vegetable 
 productions do not, in most cases, coincide with any 
 of the separate meteorological boundaries above spoken 
 of. Thus the northern Hmit of vineyards runs through 
 France, in a direction very nearly north-east and south- 
 west, while the Une of equal temperature is nearly 
 east and west. And the spontaneous gi'owth or advan- 
 tageous cultivation of other plants, is in like manner 
 bounded by hues of which the course depends upon 
 very complex causes, but of which the position is 
 generally precise and fixed. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 58 
 
 Chap. VII. — Tlic Variety of Organisation corresponding to the 
 
 Variety of Cliraaie. 
 
 The organisation of plants and annuals is in 
 different tribes formed upon schemes more; or less 
 different, but in all cases adjusted in a general way to 
 the course and action of the elements. The differences 
 are connected with the different habits and manners of 
 living which belong to different species ; and at any 
 one place the various species, both of animals and 
 plants, have a number of relations and mutual depend- 
 encies arising out of these differences. But besides 
 the differences of this kind, we find in tlie forms of 
 organic life another set of differences, by v/hich the 
 animal and vegetable kingdom are fitted for that variety 
 in the climates of the earth, which we have been 
 endeavouring to explam. 
 
 The existence of such differences is too obvious to 
 require to be dwelt upon. The plants and animals 
 which flourish and thrive in countries remote from 
 each other, offer to the eye of the traveller a series of 
 pictures, which even to an ignorant and unreflecting 
 spectator, is full of a peculiar and fascinating interest, 
 in consequence of the novelty and strangeness of the 
 successive scenes. 
 
 Those who describe the countries between the 
 tropics, speak with admiration of the luxuiiant pro- 
 fusion and rich variety of the vegetable productions of 
 those regions. Vegetable life seems there far more 
 vigorous and active, the circumstances under which it 
 
54 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 goes on, far more favourable than in our latitudes. 
 Now if we conceive an inhabitant of those regions, 
 knowing, from the circumstances of the earth's form 
 and motion, the difference of climates, Avhich must pre- 
 vail upon it, to guess, from what he saw about him, 
 the condition of other parts of the globe as to vegetable 
 wealth, is it not likely that he would suppose that the 
 extratropical climates must be ahnost devoid of plants ? 
 We know that the ancients, living in the temperate 
 zone, came to the conclusion that both the torrid and 
 the frigid zones must be uninhabitable. In like manner 
 the equatorial reasoner would probably conceive that 
 vegetation must cease, or gradually die away, as he 
 should proceed to places further and further removed 
 from the genial influence of the sun. The mean tempe- 
 rature of his year being about eighty degrees, he would 
 hardly suppose that any plants could subsist through a 
 year, where the mean temperature was only fifty, where 
 the temperature of the summer quarter was only sixty- 
 four, and where the mean temperature of a whole 
 quarter of the year was a very few degrees removed 
 from that at which water becomes solid. He would 
 suppose that scarcely any tree, shrub, or flower could 
 exist in such a state of things, and so far as the 
 plants of his own country are concerned he would 
 judge rightly. 
 
 But the countries further removed from the equator 
 are not left thus unprovided. Instead of being scantily 
 occupied by such of the tropical plants as could support 
 a stunted and precarious life in ungenial climes, they 
 are abundantly stocked with a multitude of vegetables 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 55 
 
 which appear to be constructed expressly for them, 
 inasmuch as these species can no more flourish at the 
 equator than the equatorial species can in thtise tem- 
 perate regions. And such new supplies thus adapted 
 to new conditions, recur perpetually as we advance 
 towards the apparently frozen and imtenantabh; regions 
 in the neighbourhood of the pole. Every zone has 
 its peculiar vegetables ; and while we miss some, we 
 find others make their appearance, as if to replace 
 those which are absent. 
 
 If we look at the indigenous plants of i'lsia and 
 Europe, we find such a succession as we have here 
 spoken of. At the equator w^e find the natives of the 
 Spice Islands, the clove and nutmeg trees, pepper and 
 mace. Cinnamon bushes clothe the surface of Ceylon;* 
 the odoriferous sandal wood, the ebony tree, the teak 
 tree, the banyan, grow in the East Indies. In the 
 same latitudes in Arabia the Happy we find balm, 
 frankincense, and myrrh, the coffee tree, and the tama- 
 rind. But in these countries, at least in the plains, 
 the trees and shrubs which decorate our more northerly 
 climes are wanting. And as we go northwards, at every 
 step w^e change the vegetable group, both by addition 
 and by subtraction. In the thickets to the west of the 
 Caspian Sea we have the apricot, citron, peach, walnut. 
 In the same latitude in Spain, Sicily, and Italy, we 
 find the dwarf palm, the cypress, the chestnut, the 
 cork tree : the orange and lemon tree perfume the 
 air with their blossoms : the myrtle and pomegranate 
 grow wild among the rocks. We cross the iVJps, and 
 
 * Barton, Geography of Plants. 
 
56 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 57 
 
 we find the vegetation whicli belongs to northern 
 Europe, of which England affords an instance. The 
 oak, the beech, and the elm are natives of Great 
 Britain : the elm tree seen in Scotland, and in the 
 north of England, is the wych elm. As we travel still 
 further to the north the forests agam change tlieir 
 character. In the northern provinces of the Kussian 
 empire are found forests of the various species of firs : 
 the scotch and spruce fir, and the larch. In the 
 Orkney Islands no tree is found but the hazel, which 
 occurs again on the northern shores of the Baltic. As 
 we proceed into colder regions we still find species 
 which appear to have been made for these situations. 
 The hoary or cold alder makes its appearance north 
 of Stockholm : the sycamore and moimtain ash accom- 
 pany us to the head of the guK of Bothnia : and as wc 
 leave this and traverse the Dophrian range, we pass in 
 succession the boundary lines of the spruce fir, the 
 scotch fir, and those minute shrubs which botanists 
 distinguish as the dwarf birch and dwarf willow. Here, 
 near to or witliin the arctic circle, we yet find wild 
 flowers of great beauty : the mezereum, the yellow and 
 white water-lily, and the European globe flower. And 
 when these fail us, the reindeer moss still makes the 
 country habitable for animals and man. 
 
 We have thus a variety in the laws of vegetable 
 organisation remarkably adapted to the variety of 
 climates ; and by this adaptation the globe is clothed 
 with vegetation and peopled witli animals from pole to 
 pole, while without such an adaptation vegetable and 
 animal life must have been confined almost, or entirelv. 
 
 to some narrow zone on the earth's surface. We con- 
 ceive that we see here the evidence of a wise and 
 benevolent intention, overcoming the varying diffi- 
 culties, or employing the varying resources of the 
 elements, with an inexhaustible fertility of contiivance, 
 a constant tendency to diffuse life and well being. 
 
 II. One of the great uses to which the vegetable 
 wealth of the earth is applied, is the support of man, 
 whom it provides with food and clothing ; and the 
 adaptation of tribes of indigenous vegetables to every 
 climate has, we cannot but believe, a reference to the 
 intention that the human race should be diffused over 
 the whole globe. But this end is not answ'ered by 
 indigenous vegetables alone ; and in the variety of 
 vegetables capable of being cultivated with advantage 
 in various countries, we conceive that we find evidence 
 of an additional adaptation of the scheme of organic life 
 to the system of the elements. 
 
 The cultivated vegetables, which form the necessaries 
 or luxuries of human life, are each confined within 
 limits, narrow, when compared with the whole surface 
 of the earth; yet almost every part of the earth's 
 surface is capable of being abundantly cov(;red -vnth 
 one kind or other of these. When one class fails, 
 another appears in its place. Thus corn, -v^ine, and 
 oil, have each its boundaries. Wheat extends, through 
 the old Continent, from England to Thibet : but it 
 stops soon in going northwards, and is not found to 
 succeed in the west of Scotland. Nor does it thrive 
 better in the torrid zone than in the polar regions : 
 within the tropics, wheat, barley, and oats are not 
 
58 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 59 
 
 cultivated, excepting in situations considerably above 
 the level of the sea : the inhabitants of those countries 
 have other species of grain, or other food. The culti- 
 vation of the vine succeeds only in countries where the 
 anuual temperature is between 50 and (v^ degrees. 
 In both hemispheres, the profitable culture of this 
 plant ceases within 80 degrees of the equator, unless in 
 elevated situations, or in islands, as Teneriffe. The 
 limits of the cultivation of maize and of olives in France 
 are parallel to those which bound the vine and corn in 
 succession to the north. In the north of Italy, west of 
 Milan, we first meet with the cultivation of rice ; which 
 extends over all the southern part of Asia, wherever 
 the land can be at pleasure covered with water. In 
 great part of Africa millet is one of the i^rincipal kinds 
 of grain. 
 
 Cotton is cultivated to latitude 40 in the new world, 
 but extends to Astrachan in latitude 46 in the old. 
 The sugar cane, the plantain, the mulbeny, the betel 
 nut, the mdigo tree, the tea tree, repay the labours of 
 the cultivator in India and China ; and several of these 
 plants have been transferred, with success, to America 
 and the West Indies. In equinoctial America a great 
 number of inhabitants find abmidant nourisliment on 
 a narrow space cultivated with plantain, cassava yams, 
 and maize. The cultivation of the bread fruit tree 
 begms in the Manillas, and extends through the 
 Pacific ; the sago palm is grown in the Moluccas, the 
 cabbage tree in the Pelew Islands. 
 
 In this manner the various tribes of men are provided 
 with vegetable food. Some, however, live on their cattle. 
 
 and thus make the produce of the earth only mediately 
 subservient to their wants. Thus the Tatar tribes 
 depend on their flocks and herds for food : the taste for 
 the flesh of the horse seems to belong to the Mongols, 
 Fins, and other descendants of the ancient Scythians : 
 the locust eaters are found now, as formerly, in Africa. 
 
 Many of these differences depend upon custom, soil, 
 and other causes with w^hich we do not here meddle ; 
 but many are connected with climate : and the variety 
 of the resources which man thus i^ossesses, arises from 
 the variety of constitution belonging to cultivable vege- 
 tables, through which one is fitted to one range of 
 climate, and another to another. We conceive tliat 
 this variety and succession of fitness for cultivation, 
 shows undoubted marks of a most foreseeing and 
 benevolent design in the Creator of man and of the 
 world. 
 
 III. By differences in vegetables of the kind we have 
 above described, the sustentation and gratification of 
 man's physical nature is copiously provided for. But 
 there is another circumstance, a result of the difference 
 of the native products of different regions, and there- 
 fore a consequence of that difference of climate on 
 which the difl*erence of native products depends,* which 
 appears to be worthy our notice. The difference of the 
 productions of different countries has a bearing not only 
 upon the physical, but upon the social and moral 
 condition of man. 
 
 The intercourse of nations in the way of discovery, 
 
 * It will be observed, that it is not here asserted that the difference 
 of native products depends on the difference of climate alom^. 
 
60 
 
 TEREESTIQAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 colonisation, commerce ; tlie study of the natural 
 history, manners, institutions of foreign countries; 
 lead to most numerous and important results. Without 
 dwelling upon this subject, it will probabty be allowed 
 that such intercourse has a gi'eat influence upon the 
 comforts, the prosperUy, the arts, the literature, the 
 power, of the nations which thus communicate. Now 
 the variety of the productions of different lands supplies 
 both the stimulus to this intercourse, and the instru- 
 ments by which it produces its effects. The desire to 
 possess the objects or the knowledge which foreign 
 countries alone can supply, urges the trader, the 
 traveller, the discoverer to compass land and sea; and 
 the progress of the arts and advantages of civilisation 
 consists almost entirely in the cultivation, the use, the 
 improvement of that which has been received from 
 other countries. 
 
 This is the case to a much greater extent than might 
 at first sight be supposed. Where man is active as 
 a cultivator, he scarcely ever bestows much of his care 
 on those vegetables which the land would produce in a 
 state of nature. He does not select some of the plants 
 of the soil and improve them by careful culture, but, for 
 the most part, he expels the native possessors of the 
 land, and introduces colonies of strangers. 
 
 Thus, to take the condition of our own part of the 
 globe as an example ; scarcely one of the plants which 
 occupy our fields and gardens is indigenous to the 
 country. The walnut and the peach come to us from 
 Persia ; the apricot from Armenia : from Asia Minor, 
 and Syria, we have the cherry tree, the fig, the pear, 
 
 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 61 
 
 the pomegranate, the olive, the plum, and the mulberry. 
 The vine which is now cultivated is not a native of 
 Europe ; it is found wild on the shores of the Caspian, 
 in Armenia and Caramania. The most useful species 
 of plants, the cereal vegetables, are certainly strangers 
 though their birth place seems to be an impenetrable 
 secret. Some have fancied that barley is found wild on 
 the banks of the Semara, in Tartary, lye in Crete, 
 wheat at Baschkiros, in Asia ; but tliis is held by the 
 best botanists to be very doubtful. The potato, which 
 has been so widely diffused over the world in modern 
 times, and has added so much to the resourc(;s of life 
 in many countries, has been found equally difficult to 
 trace back to its wild condition.^' 
 
 Thus widely are spread tlie traces of the cc>nnexion 
 of the progress of civilisation with national intercourse. 
 In our own comitry a higher state of the arts of life is 
 marked by a more ready and extensive adoption of 
 foreign productions. Our fields are covered with herbs 
 from Holland, and roots from Germany ; with Flemish 
 farming and Swedish turnips ; our liills with forests of 
 the firs of Norway. The chestnut and poplar of the 
 south of Europe adorn our lawns, and below them 
 flourish shrubs and flowers from every clime in pro- 
 fusion. In the mean time Arabia improves our horses, 
 China our pigs. North America our poultry, Spain oiu: 
 sheep, and almost every country sends its dog. The 
 
 * Humboldt, Georg. des Plantes, p. 29. It appears, liowover, to be 
 now ascertained that the edible potato is found wild in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Valparaiso. Mr. Sabine in the Horticultural Trang. 
 vol. V. p. 249. 
 
 f 
 
62 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 I'l) 
 
 n.' 
 
 products which are ingredients in our luxuiies, and 
 which we cannot naturalise at home, we raise in our 
 colonies ; the cotton, coffee, sugar of the east are thus 
 transplanted to the farthest west ; and man lives in the 
 middle of a rich and varied abundance, which depends 
 on the facility with which plants and animals and 
 modes of cultm^e can be transferred into lands far 
 removed from those in which nature had placed them. 
 And this plenty and variety of material comforts is the 
 companion and the mark of advantages and improve- 
 ments in social life, of progress in art and science, of 
 activity of thought, of energy of pui*pose, and of ascen- 
 dancy of character. 
 
 The differences in the productions of different 
 countries which lead to the habitual intercourse of 
 nations, and through this to the benefits wliich we 
 have thus briefly noticed, do not all depend upon 
 the differences of temperature and climate alone. 
 But these differences are among the causes, and 
 are some of the most important causes, or conditions, 
 of the variety of products; and thus that arrange- 
 ment of the eai*th's form and motion, from which the 
 different climates of different places arise, is con- 
 nected with the social and moral welfare and advance- 
 ment of man. 
 
 We conceive that this connexion, though there must 
 be to om: apprehension much that is indefinite and 
 uncertain in tracing its details, is yet a point where we 
 may perceive the profound and comprehensive relations 
 established by the comisel and foresight of a wise and 
 good Creator of the world and of man, by whom the 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 
 
 63 
 
 progress and elevation of the human species was neither 
 uncontemplated nor micared for. 
 
 IV. We have traced, in the variety of organised beings, 
 an adaptation to the variety of climates, a provision for 
 the sustentation of man all over the globe, and an 
 instrument for the promotion of civilisation and many 
 attendant benefits. We have not consid(ired this 
 variety as itself a purpose which we can perceive or 
 understand without reference to some ulterior end. 
 Many persons, however, and especially those who ai'e 
 already in the habit of referring the world to its 
 Creator, will probably see something admirable in 
 itself in this vast variety of created things. There 
 is indeed something well fitted to produce and confirm 
 a reverential wonder, in these apparently inexhaustible 
 stores of new forms of being and modes of existence ; 
 the fixity of the laws of each class, its distinctness from 
 all others, its relations to many. Structures and habits 
 and characters are exhibited, which are conniicted and 
 distinguished according to every conceivable degree of 
 subordination and analogy, in theii' resemblances and 
 in their differences. Every new country we explore 
 presents us with new combinations, where the possible 
 cases seemed to be exliausted ; and with new resem- 
 blances and differences constructed as if to elude what 
 conjectui-e might have hit upon, by proceeding from tlie 
 old ones. Most of those who have any large portion of 
 nature brought under their notice in this point of view, 
 are led to feel that there is, in such a creation, a 
 harmony, a beauty, and a dignity, of wliich the 
 impression is irresistible; which would have been 
 
 31 
 
 ii 
 
u 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 :l 
 
 wanting in any more uniform and limited system 
 such as we might try to imagine ; and which of itself 
 gives to the arrangements, by which such a variety on 
 the earth's surface is produced, the character of well 
 devised means to a worthy end. 
 
 Chap. VIII. — The Comtituents of Climate. 
 
 We have spoken of the steady average of the climate 
 at each place, of the difference of this average at 
 different places, and of the adaptation of organised 
 beings to this character in the laws of the elements 
 by wliich they are effected. But this steadiness in the 
 general effect of the elements, is the result of an 
 extremely complex and extensive machinery. Climate, 
 in its wider sense, is not one single agent, but is the 
 aggregate result of a great number of different agents, 
 governed by different laws, producing effects of various 
 kinds. The steadiness of this compound agency is not 
 the steadiness of a permanent condition, like that of a 
 body at rest; but it is the steadiness of a state of 
 constant change and movement, succession and alter- 
 nation, seeming accident and irregularity. It is a 
 perpetual repose, combined with a perpetual motion ; 
 and invariable average of most variable quantities. 
 Now, the manner in which such a state of tilings is 
 produced, deserves, we conceive, a closer consideration. 
 It may be useful to show how the particular laws of the 
 action of each of the elements of climate are so adjusted 
 that they do not disturb this general constancy. 
 
 The principal constituents of climate are the fol- 
 
 LAWS OF UEAT. THE EARTH. 
 
 65 
 
 lowing :--the temperature of the earth, of the water, 
 of the air: — the distribution of the aqueous vapour 
 contained in the atmosphere : the winds and rains by 
 which the equilibrium of the atmosphere is restored 
 when it is in any degree disturbed. The effects of 
 light, of electricity, probably of other causes also, are 
 no doubt important in the economy of the vegetable 
 world, but these agencies have not been reduced by 
 scientific inquiries to such laws as to admit of their 
 being treated with the same exactness and certainty 
 Vv'liich we can obtain in the case of those first mentioned. 
 We shall proceed to trace some of the pecmliarities 
 in the laws of the different physical agents which are in 
 action at the earth's surface, and the manner in wliicl> 
 tliese peculiarities bear upon the general result. 
 
 ii 
 
 T/ie Laws of Heat with respect to the Earth. 
 
 One of the main causes wdiich determine the tempe- 
 rature of each climate is the effect of the sun's ra^^s on 
 the solid mass of the earth. The laws of this operation 
 have been recently made out with considerable exact- 
 ness, experimentally by Leshe, theoretically by FouiTier, 
 and by other inquirers. The theoretical inquiries have 
 required the application of very complex and abstruse 
 mathematical investigations ; but the general character 
 of the operation may, perhaps, be made easily ini-elligible. 
 
 The earth, like all solid bodies, transmits into its 
 interior the impressions of heat which it receives at 
 the surface ; and throws off the superfluous heat from 
 its surface into the surrounding space. These ])rocesses 
 
 ( 
 
 l! 
 
66 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 are called conduction and radiation, and have each their 
 ascertained mathematical laws. 
 
 By the laws of conduction, the daily impressions of 
 heat which the eai-th receives, follow each other into 
 the interior of the mass, like the waves which start from 
 tlie edge of a canal ; * and like them, become more and 
 more faint as they proceed, till they melt into the 
 general level of the internal temperature. The heat 
 thus transmitted is accumulated in the interior of the 
 earth, as in a reservoir, and flows from one part to 
 another of this reservoir. The parts of the earth near 
 the equator are more heated by the sun than other 
 parts, and on this account there is a perpetual internal 
 conduction of heat from the equatorial to other parts of 
 the sphere. And as all parts of the surface tlirow off 
 heat by radiation, in the polar regions, where the 
 surface receives little in return from the sun, a con- 
 stant waste is produced. There is thus from the polar 
 parts a perpetual dispersion of heat in the surrounding 
 space, which is supplied by a perpetual internal flow 
 from the equator towards each j)ole. 
 
 Here, then, is a kind of circulation of heat ; and 
 the quantity and rapidity of this circulation, deter- 
 mine the quantity of heat in the solid part of the 
 earth, and in each portion of it ; and through this, 
 
 * The resemblance consists in this ; that we have a strip of greater 
 temperature accompanied by a strip of smaller temperature, these strips 
 arising from the diurnal and nocturnal impressions respectively, and 
 being in motion ; as in the waves of a canal, we have a moving strip of 
 greater elevation accompanied by a strip of smaller elevation. We do 
 not here refer to any hypothetical undulations in the fluid matter of 
 heat. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. THE EARTH. 
 
 67 
 
 the mean temperature belonging to each point on 
 its smface. 
 
 If the earth conducted heat more rapidly than it 
 does, the inequalities of temperature would be more 
 quickly balanced, and the temperature of the ground in 
 different parts of the globe of the earth (below the 
 reach of annual and tUiu'nal variations), would differ less 
 than it does. If the surface radiated more rapidly than 
 It does, the flow of heat from the polar regions would 
 increase, and tlie temperature of the interior of the 
 globe would find a lower level; the differences of 
 temperatm-e in different latitudes would increase, but 
 the mean temperature of the globe would diminish. 
 
 There is nothing which, so far as we can perceive, 
 determines necessarily, either the conducting or tlie 
 radiating power of the earth to its present value. The 
 measures of such powers, in different substances, differ 
 very widely. If the earth were a globe of pui-e iron, it 
 would conduct heat, probably, twenty times as weu'as 
 it does ; if its surface were polished iron, it would only 
 radiate one-sixth as much as it does. Chang(?s in the 
 amount of the conduction and radiation far less than 
 these, would, probably, subvert the whole thermal 
 constitution of the earth, and make it uninhabitable 
 by any of its present vegetable or animal tenaiats. 
 
 One of the results of the laws of heat, as they exist 
 in the globe, is, that, by their action, the thermal state 
 tends to a limited condition, which, once reached, re- 
 mains constant and steady, as it now is. The oscil- 
 lations or excursions from the mean condition, produced 
 by any temporary cause, are rapidly suppressed ; the 
 
 F 2 
 
 ij 
 
68 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 il 
 
 deviations of seasons from their usual standard j)yo- 
 duce only a small and transient effect. The impression 
 of an extremely hot day upon the ground melts almost 
 immediately into the average internal heat. The effect 
 of a hot summer, in like manner, is soon lost in its 
 progress through the glohe. If this were otherwise, if 
 the inequahties and oscillations of heat went on, tlirough 
 the interior of the earth, retaining the same value, or 
 becoming larger and larger, we might have the extreme 
 heats or colds of one place making theii' appearance at 
 another place after a long interval ; like a conflagration 
 which creeps along a street and bursts out at a point 
 remote from its origin. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that both the present differences 
 of climate, and the steadiness of the average at each 
 place, depend upon the form of the present laws of 
 heat, and on the arbitrary magnitudes which determine 
 the rate of conduction and radiation. The laws are 
 such as to secure us from increasing and destructive 
 inequalities of heat ; the arbitrary magnitudes are data 
 to which the organic world is adjusted. 
 
 Chap. IX. — Tlie Laics of Heat with 7'espect to Water. 
 
 The manner in which heat is transmitted through 
 fluids is altogether different from the mode in which it 
 passes through solids ; and hence the waters of the 
 earth's surface produce peculiar effects upon its condi- 
 tion as to temperatm^e. Moreover, water is susceptible 
 of evaporation in a degree depending upon the increase 
 of heat; and in consequence of this property it has 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 
 
 69 
 
 most extensive and important functions to discharge in 
 the economy of nature. We will consider some of the 
 offices of this fluid. 
 
 I. Heat is communicated through water, not by 
 being co7ulucted from one part of the fluid to another, 
 as m sohd bodies, but (at least principaUy) by being 
 earned with the parts of the fluid by means of an 
 mtestme motion. Water expands and becomes Hghter 
 by lieat, and, therefore, if the upper parts be cooled 
 below the subjacent temperature, this upper portion 
 will become heavier than that below, bulk for bulk, and 
 will descend through it, whUe the lower portion rises 
 to taJve tlie upper place. In this manner the colder 
 parts descend, and the warmer parts ascend by con- 
 trary currents, and, by their interchange and mixture, 
 reduce the whole to a temperature at least as low as 
 that of the surface. And this equaHsation of tempera- 
 ture by means of such currents, is an operation of a 
 much more rapid nature than the slow motion of 
 conduction by wliich heat creeps thi^ough a soHd body. 
 Hence, alternations of heat and cold, as day and night, 
 summer and winter, produce in water inequahtie^ of 
 temperature mucli smaller than those which occur in a 
 sohd body. The heat communicated is less, for trans- 
 parent fluids imbibe heat very slowly ; and the cold 
 impressed on the sui'face is soon diffused tlnough the 
 mass by internal circulation. 
 
 Hence it follows that the ocean, which covers so large 
 a portion of the earth, and aftects the temperature of 
 the whole surface by its influence, produces the effect 
 of making the alternations of heat and cold much less 
 
 i 
 
70 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 violent than they would be if this covering were 
 removed. The different temperatures of its upper 
 and lower parts produce a current which draws the 
 sea, and by means of the sea, the air, towards the mean 
 temperature. And this kind of cii^culation is produced, 
 not only between the upper and lower parts, but also 
 between distant tracts of the ocean. The great Gulf 
 Stream Avhich rushes out of the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 runs across the Atlantic to the western shores of 
 Europe, carries with it a portion of the tropical heat 
 into the northern regions : and the returning current 
 which descends along the coast of Africa, tends to cool 
 the parts nearer the equator. Gi'eat as the difference of 
 temperature is in different climates, it would be still 
 greater if there were not this equalising and moderating 
 power exerted constantly over the whole surface. 
 Without this influence, it is probable that the two 
 polar portions of the earth, which are locked in 
 perpetual ice and snow, and almost destitute of life, 
 would be much increased. 
 
 We find an illustration of this effect of the ocean on 
 temperature, in the peculiarities of the climates of 
 maritime tracts and islands. The climate of such 
 portions of the earth, corrected in some measure by 
 the temperature of the neighbouring sea, is more 
 equable than that of places in the same latitudes 
 differently situated. London is cooler in summer 
 and warmer in winter than Paris. 
 
 II. Water expands by heat and contracts by cold, as 
 has been already said; and in consequence of this 
 property, the coldest portions of the fluid generally 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 
 
 71 
 
 occupy the lower parts. The continued ])rogress of 
 cold produces congelation. If, therefore, tlie law just 
 mentioned had been strictly true, the lowt;r parts of 
 water would have been first frozen ; and being once 
 frozen, hardly any heat applied at the surface could 
 have melted them, for the warm fluid could not have 
 descended through the colder parts. This is so far the 
 case, that in a vessel containing ice at the bottom and 
 water at the top, Kumford made the upper fluid boil 
 without thawing the congealed cake below. 
 
 Now, a law of water with respect to heat operating 
 in this manner, would have been very inconvenient i^ 
 it had prevailed in our lakes and seas. I'hey would 
 all have had a. bed of ice, increasing with every occasion, 
 tm the whole was frozen. We could have no bodies 
 of water, except such pools on the surfaces of these icy 
 reservoirs as the summer sun could thaw, to be again 
 frozen to the bottom with the first frosty night. The 
 law of the regular contraction of water by cold tiU it 
 became ice, would, therefore, be destructive of all the 
 utiHty of our seas and lakes. How is this inconvenience 
 obviated ? 
 
 It is obviated by a modification of the law which 
 takes place when the temperature approaches this 
 Hmit, Water contracts by the increase of cold, till 
 we come near the freezing temperature ; but then, by 
 a further increase of cold, it contracts no more, but 
 expands till the point at which it become-s ice.' It 
 contracts in cooling down to 40 degrees of Fahrenheit's 
 thermometer ; in cooHng further it expands, and when 
 cooled to 32 degrees, it freezes. Hence the greatest 
 
72 
 
 TERRESTEIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 density of tlie fluid is at 40 degrees, and water of this 
 temperature, or near it, will lie at the bottom with 
 cooler water or with ice floating above it. However 
 much the surface be cooled, water colder than iO cannot 
 descend to displace water warmer than itself. Hence 
 we can never have ice formed at the bottom of deep 
 water. In approaching the freezing point, the coldest 
 water will rise to the surface, and the congelation will 
 take place there ; and the ice so formed will remain at 
 the surface, exposed to the warmth of the sun-beams 
 and the air, and will not survive any long continuance 
 of such action. 
 
 Another peculiarity in the laws which regulate the 
 action of cold on water is, that in the very act of 
 freezmg a further sudden and considerable expansion 
 takes place. Many persons will have known instances 
 of vessels bui^st by the freezing of water in them. The 
 consequence of this expansion is, that the specific 
 gi-avity of ice is less than that of water of any tempera- 
 ture; and it therefore always floats in the unfrozen 
 fluid. ^ If tliis expansion of crystallisation did not 
 exist, ice would float in water which was below 40 
 degrees, but would sink when the fluid was above that 
 temperature : as the case is, it floats under all circum- 
 stances. The icy remnants of the eff'ects of winter, 
 which the river carries down its stream, are visible on 
 its surface till they melt away ; and the icebergs which 
 are detached from the shores of the polar seas, drift 
 along, exposed to the sun and air, as weU as to the 
 water in which they are immersed. 
 
 These laws of the efl'ect of temperatui'e on water are 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATEll. 
 
 73 
 
 truly remarkable in their adaptation to the beneficial 
 course of things at the eailh's surface. Wat(jr contracts 
 by cold ; it thus equaHses the temperature of various 
 tunes and places ; but if its contraction were continued 
 all the way to the freezing point, it would bind a great 
 part of the earth in fetters of ice. The contraction, 
 then, IS here replaced by expansion, in a manner which 
 but shghtly modifies the former efl-ects, whde it com- 
 pletely obviates the bad consequences. The further 
 expansion which takes place at the point of freezmg, 
 still further fadUtates the rapid removal of the icy 
 chains, in which parts of the earth's surface are at 
 certain seasons bound. 
 
 We do not know how fiir these laws of expansion 
 are connected with, and depend on, more remote and 
 general properties of this fluid, or of all fluids. But 
 we have no reason to beheve that, by whatever means 
 they operate, they are not laws selected from among 
 other laws which might exist, as in fact for other fluids 
 other laws do exist. And we have aU the evidence 
 which the most remarkable furtherance of important 
 pui^poses can give us, that they are selected, and selected 
 with a beneficial desicfii. 
 
 III. As water becomes ice by cold, it becomes steam 
 by heat. In common language, steam is the name 
 given to the vapour of hot water ; but in fad: a vapour 
 or steam rises from water at all temperatui^es, however 
 low, and even from ice. The expansive force of this 
 vapour increases rajpidly as the heat increases ; so that 
 when we reach the heat of boiHng water, it oj^erates in 
 a far more striking maimer than when it is colder ; but 
 
 ftii 
 
74 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 in all cases the surface of water is covered with an 
 atmosphere of aqueous vapoui-, the pressure or tension 
 of which is limited by the temperature of the water. 
 To each degree of pressure in steam there is a con- 
 stituent temperature corresponding. If the surface of 
 water is not pressed by vapour with the force thus 
 corresponding to its temperature, an immediate evajyo- 
 ration ^^ill supply the deficiency. We can compare 
 the tension of such vapour with that of our common 
 atmosphere; the pressure of the latter is measured 
 by the barometrical column, about thii'ty inches of 
 mercury ; that of watery vapour is equal to one inch of 
 mercury at the constituent temperature of 80 degrees, 
 and to one-fifth of an inch at the temperature of 82 
 degrees. 
 
 Hence, if that part of the atmosphere which consists 
 of common air were annihilated, there would still 
 remain an atmosphere of aqueous vapour, arising from 
 the waters and moist parts of the earth; and in the 
 existing state of things this vapour rises in the atmo- 
 sphere of dry ail-. Its distribution and effects are 
 materially influenced by the vehicle in which it is thus 
 carried, as we shall hereafter notice; but at present 
 we have to observe the exceeding utility of water m this 
 shape. We remark how suitable and indispensable to 
 the well-being of the creation it is, that the fliud should 
 possess the property of assuming such a form under 
 such circumstances. 
 
 The moisture which floats in the atmosphere is of 
 most essential use to vegetable life.* "The leaves 
 
 * Loudon, 1219. 
 
 I 
 
 LAWS OP HEAT. WATER. 
 
 75 
 
 of living plants appeal- to act upon this vapour m its 
 elastic form, and to absorb it. Some vegetables increase 
 in weight from this cause when suspended in the 
 atmosphere and unconnected with the soil, as the 
 house-leek and the aloe. In very intense heats, and 
 when the soil is dry, the life of plants seems to be 
 preserved by the absorbent power of their leaves." It 
 foUows from what has already been said, that, witli 
 an increasing heat of the atmosphere, an increasing 
 quantity of vapour wiU rise into it, if suppHed from 
 any quarter. Hence it appeal's that aque(3us vapour 
 IS most abundant in the atmosphere when it is most 
 needed for the pmposes of life ; and that when other 
 sources of moisture are cut off, this is most copious, 
 
 IV. Clouds are produced by aqueous vapour when it 
 retui-ns to the state of water. This proc(.>ss is co7i- 
 densation, the reverse of evaporation. Wlten vapour 
 exists in the atmosphere, if in any manner the tempe- 
 rature becomes lower than the constituent temperature, 
 requisite for the maintenance of the vapoury state,' 
 some of the steam will be condensed and will become 
 water. It is in this manner that the curl of steam 
 from the spout of a boiling tea-kettle becomes visible, 
 being cooled down as it rushes to the air. The steam 
 condenses into a fine watery powder, wliich is carried 
 about by the little aerial currents. Clouds are of the 
 same nature with such curls, the condensation being 
 generally produced when air, charged with aqueous 
 vapour, is mixed with a colder current, or has its 
 temperatm-e diminished in any other manner. 
 
 Clouds, while they retain that shape, are of the 
 
76 
 
 TERIIESTIIIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 '<• 
 
 most essential use to vegetable and animal life. They 
 moderate tlie fervour of the sun, in a manner agreeable, 
 to a greater or less degi^ee, in aU climates, and grateful 
 no less to vegetables than to animals. Duhamel says 
 that plants gTow more during a week of cloudy weather 
 than a month of dry and hot. It has been observed 
 that vegetables are far more refreshed by being watered 
 in cloudy than in clear weather. In the latter case, 
 probably the supply of fluid is too rapidly carried off by 
 evaporation. Clouds also moderate the alternations of 
 temperature, by checldng the radiation from the earth. 
 The coldest nights are tliose Avliich occur under a 
 cloudless winter sky. 
 
 The uses of clouds, therefore, in this stage of their 
 history, are by no means inconsiderable, and seem to 
 indicate to us that the laws of their formation were 
 constructed with a view to the piu-poses of organised 
 life. 
 
 V. Clouds produce ra'm. In the formation of a cloud 
 the precipitation of moistui-e probably forms a fine 
 watery jmvder, which remains suspended in the aii' in 
 consequence of the minuteness of its particles : but if 
 from any cause the precipitation is collected in larger 
 portions, and becomes drops, these descend by their 
 weight and produce a shower. 
 
 Thus rain is another of the consequences of the 
 properties of water with respect to heat ; its uses ai'e 
 the results of the laws of evaporation and condensation. 
 These uses, with reference to plants, are too obvious 
 and too numerous to be described. It is evident that 
 on Its quantity and distribution depend in a oreat 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 
 
 77 
 
 measm^e the prosperity of the vegetable kingdom : and 
 different cHmates are fitted for different productions, 
 no less by the relations of dry weather and showers,' 
 than by those of hot and cold. 
 
 YI. Eeturning back still further in the changes which 
 cold can produce on water, we come to snoiv and ice : 
 snow being apparently frozen cloud or vapour, aggre- 
 gated by a confused action of crystalUne laws ; and°ice 
 being water in its fluid state, solidified by the same 
 crystaUine forces. The impression of these agents on 
 the animal feelings is generaHy unpleasant, and we are 
 m the habit of considering them as symptoms of the 
 power of winter to interrupt that state of th(i elements 
 in which they are subservient to life. Yet, even in this 
 form, they are not without their uses.* *' Snow and 
 ice are bad conductors of cold ; and when the ground 
 IS covered with snow, or the surface of the soil or of 
 water is frozen, the roots or bulbs of plants beneath 
 are protected by the congealed water from the influence 
 of the atmosphere, the temperature of wliich, in northern 
 winters, is usually very much below the freezing point ; 
 and this water becomes the first nourishment of the 
 plant in early spring. The expansion of water during 
 its congelation, at which time its volume increases 
 one-twelfth, and its contraction in bulk during a thaw, 
 tend to pulverise tlie soil, to separate its parts from 
 each other, and to make it more permeable to the 
 influence of the air." » In consequence of the same 
 slowness in the conduction of heat which snow thus 
 possesses, the arctic traveUer finds liis bed of snow of 
 
 ii 
 
 I i 
 
 * Loudon, 1214. 
 
ki 
 
 I r 
 
 I 
 
 78 
 
 TERRESTEIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 no intolerable coldness; the Esquimaux is sheltered 
 from the inclemency of the season in his snow hut, and 
 travels rapidly and agreeably over the frozen surface 
 of the sea. The uses of those arrangements, which at 
 first appeax productive only of pain and inconvenience, 
 axe well suited to give confidence and hope to our 
 researches for such usefulness in every part of the 
 creation. Tlfey have thus a peculiar value in adding 
 connexion and universaHty to our perception of bene- 
 ficial design. 
 
 yil. There is a peculiar circumstance still to be 
 noticed in the changes from ice to water and from 
 water to steam. These changes take place at a parti- 
 culai^ and invariable degree of heat ; yet they do not 
 take place suddenly when we increase the heat to this 
 degree. This is a very curious arrangement. The 
 temperature makes a stand, as it were, at the point 
 where thaw and where boHing take place. It is 
 necessary to apply a considerable quantity of heat to 
 produce these effects ; all which heat disappears, or 
 becomes late^it, as it is called. We cannot raise the 
 temperature of a thawing mass of ice till we have 
 thawed the whole. We cannot raise the temperature 
 of boiHng water, or of steam rising from it, tHl we have 
 converted aU the water into steam. Any heat that we 
 apply while Hiese changes are going on is absorbed in 
 producing the changes. 
 
 The consequences of this property of latent heat are 
 very important. It is on this account that the changes 
 now spoken of necessarily occupy a considerable time. 
 Each part m succession must have a proper degree of 
 
 I 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 
 
 79 
 
 heat applied to it. If it were otherwise, thaw and 
 evaporation must be instantaneous ; at the first touch 
 of warmth, aU the snow which lies on the roofs of our 
 houses would descend like a water-spout into the 
 streets : all that which rests on the ground would rush 
 like an inundation into the water courses. The hut of 
 the Esquimaux would vanish like a house in a panto- 
 niime : the icy floor of the river would be gone without 
 giving any warning to the skater or the traveUer : and 
 when, in heating our water, we reached the boiling 
 point, the whole fluid would " flasli into steaoi," (to use 
 the expression of engineers,) and dissipatt^ itself in 
 the atmosphere, or settle in dew on the neighbouring 
 objects. 
 
 It is obviously necessary for the purposes of human 
 life, that these changes should be of a more gradual 
 and manageable kind than such as we have now 
 described. Yet tliis gradual progress of freezing and 
 thawing, of evaporation and condensation, is produced, 
 so far as we can discover, by a particular contiivance! 
 Like the freezing of water from the top, or the floating 
 of ice, the moderation of the rate of these changes 
 seems to be the result of a violation of a law : that'^is, 
 the simple rule regarding the effects of change of tern-' 
 perature, which at fii^st sight appears to be the law, 
 and which, from its simplicity, would seem to us the 
 most obvious law for these as weU as other cases, is 
 modified at certain critical points, so as to produce 
 these advantageous effects :■— why may we not say in 
 order to produce sucli effects ? 
 
 VIII. Another office of water, wliich it dischai'ges by 
 
1- 
 
 80 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 means of its relations to heat, is that of supplying our 
 springs. There can be no doubt that the old hypotheses, 
 which represent springs as drawing their supplies from 
 large subterranean reservoirs of water, or from the sea 
 by a process of subterraneous filtration, are erroneous 
 and untenable. The quantity of evaporation from water 
 and from wet ground is found to be amply sufficient 
 to supply the requisite drain. Mr. Dalton calculated* 
 that the quantity of rain which falls in England 
 is thirty-six mches a year. Of this he reckoned 
 that thirteen inches flow off to the sea by the rivers, 
 and that the remaining twenty-three inches are raised 
 again from the ground by evaporation. The thirteen 
 inches of water are of course supj)lied by evaporation 
 from the sea, and are carried back to the land through 
 the atmosphere. Vapour is perpetually rising from the 
 ocean, and is condensed in the hills and high lands, 
 and through their pores and crevices descends, till it is 
 deflected, collected, and conducted out to the day, b}' 
 some stratum or channel which is watertight. The 
 condensation which takes place in the higher parts of 
 a country, may easily be recognised in the mists and 
 rains which are the frequent occupants of such regions. 
 The coldness of the atmosphere and other causes pre- 
 cipitate the moisture in clouds and showers, and in the 
 former as well as in the latter shape, it is condensed 
 and absorbed by the cool ground. Thus a perpetual 
 and compound circulation of the waters is kept up ; a 
 naiTower circle between the evaporation and precipita- 
 tion of the land itself, the rivers and streams only 
 
 * Mancliester Memoirs, v. 357 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. WATER. 
 
 81 
 
 occasionally and partially forming a portion of the 
 circuit ; and a wider interchange between the sea and 
 the lands which feed the sx^rings, the water ascending 
 perpetually by a thousand currents through the air, and 
 descending by the gradually converging branches of the 
 rivers, till it is again retui'ned into the gr(iat reservoii' 
 of the ocean. 
 
 In every country, these two x)ortions of the aqueous 
 cii'culation have their regular, and nearly constant, 
 pro]3ortion. In this kmgdom the relative quantities 
 are, as we have said, 23 and 13. A due distribution of 
 these circulating fluids in each country appears to be 
 necessary to its organic health ; to the habits of vege- 
 tables, and of man. We have every reascm to believe 
 that it is kept up from year to year as stt^adily as the 
 circulation of the blood in the veins and arteries of 
 man. It is maintained by machinery very different, 
 indeed, from that of the human system, but apparently 
 as well, and therefore we may say as clearly, as that, 
 adapted to its purposes. 
 
 By this machinery we have a connection established 
 between the atmospheric changes of remote countries. 
 Rains in England are often introduced by a south-east 
 wind. " Vapour brought to us by such a wind, must 
 have been generated in countries to tlie south and east 
 of oiu' island. It is therefore, probably, in the extensive 
 valleys watered by the Meuse, the Moselle, and the 
 Khine, if not from the more distant Elbe, with the 
 Oder and the Weser, that the water rises, in the midst 
 of sunshine, which is soon afterwards to form our 
 clouds, and pour down our thmider- showers." *' Drought 
 
82 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 and sunshine in one part of Europe may be as neces- 
 sary to the production of a wet season in another, as it 
 is on the great scale of the continents of Africa and 
 South America ; where the plains, during one half the 
 year, are burnt up, to feed the springs of the moun- 
 tains ; which in their turn contribute to inundate the 
 fertile valleys, and prepare them for a luxuriant vege- 
 tation."* The properties of water which regard heat 
 make one vast 7vatering-engine of the atmosphere. 
 
 Chap. X.— T/ie Laios of Heat ivith respect to Air. 
 
 We have seen in the preceding chapter, how many 
 and how important are the offices discharged by the 
 aqueous part of the atmosphere. The aqueous jpart is, 
 however, a very small part only : it may vary, perhaps, 
 from less than 1-lOOdtli to nearly as much as l-20th 
 in weight of the whole aerial ocean. We have to offer 
 some considerations with regard to the remainder of 
 the mass. 
 
 I. In the first place we may observe that the aerial 
 atmosphere is necessary as a vehicle for the aqueous 
 vapour. Salutary as is the operation of this last 
 element to the whole organised creation, it is a sub- 
 stance which would not have answered its purposes if 
 it had been administered pure. It requires to be 
 diluted and associated with dry air, to make it service- 
 able. A little consideration will show this. 
 
 We can suppose the earth with no atmosphere except 
 the vapour which arises from its watery j)arts : and if 
 
 Howard on the Climate of London, vol. ii., pp. 216, 217. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 88 
 
 we suppose also the equatorial parts of the globe to be 
 hot, and the i)olar parts cold, we may easily see what 
 would be the consequence. The waters at the equator, 
 and near the equator, would i)roduce steam of gi-eater 
 elasticity, rarity, and temperature, than that which 
 occupies the regions further polewards; and such steam, 
 as it came in contact with the colder vapour of a higher 
 latitude, would be precipitated into the form of water. 
 Hence there would be a ]oerpetual current of steam 
 from the equatorial parts towards each pole, which 
 would be condensed, would fall to the surfa(3e, and flow 
 back to the equator in the form of fluid. We should 
 have a circulation which might be regarded as a species 
 of regulated distillation.* On a globe so constituted, 
 the sky of the equatorial zone would be perpetually 
 cloudless ; but in all other latitudes we should have an 
 uninterrupted shroud of clouds, fogs, rains, and, near 
 the poles, a continual fall of snow. This would be 
 balanced by a constant flow of the currents of the 
 ocean from each pole towards the equator. We should 
 have an excessive circulation of moistm^e, but no sun- 
 shine, and probably only minute changes in the intensity 
 and apx^earances of one eternal drizzle or shower. 
 
 It is plain that this state of things would but ill 
 answer the ends of vegetable and animal hfe : so that 
 even if the lungs of animals and the leaves of plants 
 were so constructed as to breathe steam instead of air, 
 an atmosphere of unmixed steam would deprive those 
 creatures of most of the other external conditions of 
 their well-being. 
 
 * Daniell. Meteor, Ess., p. 56. 
 
 G 
 
84 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 Tlie real state of things which we enjo}^ the steam 
 being mixed in our breath and in our sky in a moderate 
 quantity, gives rise to results very different from those 
 which have been described. The machinery by which 
 these results are produced is not a little curious. It is, 
 in fact, the machinery of the iveathcr, and therefore the 
 reader will not be surprised to find it both complex and 
 apparently uncertain in its working. At the same time 
 some of the general x)rincix)les which govern it seem 
 now to be pretty well made out, and they offer no small 
 evidence of beneficent arrangement. 
 
 Besides our atmosphere of aqueous vapour, we have 
 another and far larger atmosphere of common air; a 
 permanently elastic fluid, that is, one which is not con- 
 densed into a liquid form by X3ressure or cold, such as 
 it is exposed to in the order of natural events. The 
 pressure of the dry air is about 29^ inches of mercury; 
 that of the watery vapour, i)erhaps, half an inch. Now 
 if we had the eaiih quite dry, and covered with an 
 atmosphere of dry air, we can trace in a great measure 
 what would be the results, supposing still the equatorial 
 zone to be hot, and the temjierature of the surface to 
 decrease perpetually as we advance into higher lati- 
 tudes. The air at the equator would be rarefied by the 
 heat, and would be perpetually displaced below by the 
 denser portions which belong to cooler latitudes. We 
 should have a current of air from the equator to the 
 poles in the higher regions of the atmosphere, and at 
 the surface a returning cm'rent setting towards the 
 equator to fill up the void so created. Such aerial 
 currents, combined with the rotatory motion of the 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 85 
 
 f 
 
 earth, would produce oblique winds ; and >vre have, in 
 fact, instances of winds so produced, in the trade winds, 
 whicli between the tropics blow constantly from the 
 quarters between east and north, and are. we know, 
 balanced by opi)osite currents in higher regions. The 
 effect of a heated surface of land would be the same as 
 that of the heated zone of the equator, and would attract 
 to it a sea breeze during the day time, a phenomenon, 
 as we also know, of perpetual occurrence. 
 
 Now a mass of dry air of such a character as this, is 
 by far the dominant part of our atmosphere ; and hence 
 carries with it in its motions the tliinner and smaller 
 eddies of aqueous vapour. The latter fluid may be 
 considered as permeating and moving in the mterstices 
 of the former, as a spring of water flows thrcugh a sand 
 rock.* The lower cmTent of air is, as has been said, 
 directed towards the equator, and hence it resists the 
 motion of the steam, the tendency of which is in the 
 opposite direction ; and prevents or much I'ctards that 
 continual flow of hot vapour into colder regions, by 
 which a constant precipitation would take ])lace in the 
 latter situations. 
 
 If, in this state of things, the flow of the current of 
 air, which blows from any colder place into a warmer 
 region, be retarded or stopped, the aqueous vapours 
 will now be able to make their way to the colder point, 
 where they will be precipitated in clouds or showers. 
 
 Thus, in the lower part of the atmosphere, there are 
 tendencies to a current of air in one direction, and a 
 current of vapour in the opposite ; and these tendencies 
 
 * Daniell. p. 129. 
 
86 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 87 
 
 exist in the average weather of places situated at a 
 moderate distance from the equator. The air tends 
 from the colder to the warmer i)arts, the vapour from 
 the w^armer to the colder. 
 
 The various distribution of land and sea, and many 
 other causes, make these currents far from simple. 
 But in general the au' current x)redominates, and keeps 
 the skies clear and the moisture dissolved. Occasional 
 and irregular occurrences disturb this j)redominance ; 
 the moisture is then jirecipitated, the skies are clouded, 
 and the clouds may descend in copious rains. 
 
 These alternations of fair weather and showers 
 appear to be much more favourable to vegetable and 
 animal life than any uniform course of weather could 
 have been. To produce this variety, we have two 
 antagonist forces, by the struggle of which such changes 
 occur. Steam and air, tw^o transi)arent and elastic 
 fluids, expansible by heat, are in many respects and 
 properties very like each other. Yet the same heat, 
 similarly applied to the globe, produces at the smface 
 cmTents of these fluids, tending in opposite directions. 
 And these currents mix and balance, conspire and 
 interfere, so that our trees and fields have alternately 
 water and smishine ; our fruits and gTain are succes- 
 sively developed and matured. Why should such laws 
 of heat and elastic fluids so obtain, and be so com- 
 bined? Is it not in order that they may be fit for 
 such offices? There is here an arrangement, which 
 no chance could have produced. The details of this 
 apparatus may be beyond our power of tracing; its 
 springs may be out of om* sight. Such circumstances 
 
 i 
 
 do not make it the less a curious and beautiful con- 
 trivance : they need not prevent our recognising the 
 skill and benevolence w^hicli we can discover. 
 
 II. But we have not yet done with the machinery of 
 the weather. In ascending from the earth's surface 
 through the atmosphere, we find a remarkable difterence 
 in the heat and in the pressure of the aii\ It becomes 
 much colder, and much lighter ; men's feelings tell 
 them this ; and the thermometer and barometer con- 
 firm these mdications. And here again we find some- 
 thing to remark. 
 
 In both the simple atmospheres of which we have 
 spoken, the one of air and the one of steam, the pro- 
 perty which we have mentioned must exist. In each 
 of them, both the temperature and the tension would 
 diminish in ascending. But they would diminish at 
 very different rates. The temperature, for instance, 
 would decrease much more rapidly for the same height 
 in dry air than in steam. If we begin with a tempera- 
 ture of 80 degrees at the suiface, on ascending 5,000 
 feet the steam is still 76^ degrees, the ak is only 64^ 
 degrees; at 10,000 feet, the steam is 73 degrees, the 
 air 48 J degrees; at 15,000 feet, steam is at 70 degrees; 
 air has fallen below the freezing point to {\l^ degrees. 
 Hence these two atmospheres cannot exiist together 
 without modifying one another : one must heat or cool 
 the other, so that the coincident parts ma^ be of the 
 same temperature. Tliis accordingly does take place, 
 and this effect influences yerj greatly the constitution 
 of the atmosphere. For the most part, the steam is 
 compelled to accommodate itseK to the temperature of 
 
 ..^^SSls^^ 
 
88 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 89 
 
 tlie air, the latter being of much the greater bulk. But 
 
 if the upper parts of the aqueous vapour be cooled 
 
 down to the temperature of the air, they will not by 
 
 any means exert on the lower pai-ts of the same vapour 
 
 so great a pressm^e as the gaseous form of these could 
 
 bear. Hence, there will be a deficiency of moisture in 
 
 the lower part of the atmosphere, and if water exist 
 
 there it will rise by evaporation, the sur^ice feeling an 
 
 insufficient tension; and there will thus be a fresh 
 
 supply of vapour upwards. As, however, the upper 
 
 regions already contain as much as theb temperature 
 
 will support in the state of gas, a precipitation will now 
 
 take place, and the fluid thus formed will descend till 
 
 it arrives in a lower region, where the tension and 
 
 temperature are again adapted to its evaporation. 
 
 Thus, we can have no equilibrium in such an atmo- 
 sphere, but a perpetual circulation of vapour between 
 its upper and lower parts. The currents of air which 
 move about in different directions, at different altitudes, 
 will be differently charged with moisture, and as they 
 touch and mingle. Hues of cloud are formed, which 
 grow and join, and are spread out in floors, or rolled 
 together in piles. These, agam, by an additional acces- 
 sion of humidity, are formed into drops, and descend in 
 showers into the lower regions, and if not evaporated 
 in their fall, reach the surface of the earth. 
 
 The varying occmTences thus produced, tend to 
 multiply and extend their own variety. The ascend- 
 ing streams of vapour carry with them that latent heat 
 belonging to their gaseous state, which, when they are 
 condensed, they give out as sensible heat. They thus 
 
 raise the temperature of the upper regions of air, and 
 occasion changes in the pressure and motion of its 
 currents. The clouds, again, by shading the sm'face of 
 the earth from the sun, diminish the evai)oration by 
 which their own substance is supplied, and the heating 
 effects by which currents are caused. Even the mere 
 mechanical effects of the currents of fluid on the dis- 
 tribution of its own x>ressure, and the dynamical con- 
 ditions of its motion, are in a high degree abstruse in 
 their princi^des and complex in their results. It need 
 not be wondered, therefore, if the study of this subject 
 is very difficult and entangled, and our knovdedge, after 
 all, very imperfect. 
 
 In the midst of all this apparent confusion, however, 
 we can see much that we can understand. And, among 
 other things, we may notice some of the consequences 
 of the difference of the laws of temperature followed by 
 steam and by air in going upwards. One important 
 result is that the atmosphere is much drier, near the 
 sm-face, than it would have been if the laws of density 
 and temperature had been the same for both gases. 
 If this had been so, the air would always have been 
 saturated with vapour. It would have contained as 
 much as the existing temperature could support, and 
 the slightest cooling of any object would have covered 
 it with a watery film like dew. As it is, the air contains 
 much less than its full quantity of vapour : we may 
 often cool an object 10, 20, or 30 degrcjes without 
 obtaining a deposition of water upon it, or reaching the 
 dew-point, as it is called. To have had such a dripping 
 state of the atmosphere as the former arrangement 
 
90 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 91 
 
 would have produced, would have been inconvenient, 
 and, so far as we can judge, unsuited to vegetables as 
 well as animals. No evaporation from the surface of 
 either could have taken place under such conditions. 
 
 The sizes and forms of clouds appear to depend on 
 the same circumstance, of the air not being saturated 
 with moisture. And it is seemingly much better that 
 clouds should be comparatively small and well defined, 
 as they are, than that they should fill vast depths of 
 the atmosphere with a tliin mist, which would have 
 been the consequence of the imaginary condition of 
 things just mentioned. 
 
 Here then we have another remarkable exliibition of 
 two laws, in two nearly similar gaseous fluids, producing 
 effects alike in kind, but different in degree, and by the 
 play of theii^ difference giving rise to a new set of 
 results, pecidiar in their nature and beneficial in their 
 tendency. The form of the laws of air and of steam 
 with regard to heat might, so far as we can see, have 
 been more similar, or more dissimilar, than it now is : 
 the rate of each law might have had a different amount 
 from its present one, so as quite to alter the relation 
 of the two. By the laws having such forms and 
 such rates as they have, effects are produced, 
 some of which we can distinctly perceive to be bene- 
 ficial. Perhaps most persons will feel a strong per- 
 suasion, that if we understood the operation of these 
 laws more distinctly, we should see still more clearly 
 the beneficial tendency of these effects, and should 
 probably discover others, at present concealed in the 
 apparent perplexity of tlie subject. 
 
 III. From what has been said, we ma}' see, in a 
 general way, both the causes and the effects of winds. 
 They arise from any disturbance by teuiperature, 
 motion, pressure, kc, of the equilibrium of the atmo- 
 sphere, and are the efforts of natm*e to restore the 
 balance. Their office in the economy of nature is to 
 carry heat and moisture from one tract to another, and 
 they are the great agents in the distribution of tempe- 
 rature and the changes of weather. Other purposes 
 might easily be ascribed to them in the business of tlie 
 vegetable and animal kingdoms, and in the arts of 
 human life, of which we shall not here treat. That 
 character in which we now consider them, that of the 
 machinery of atmospheric changes, and thus, imme- 
 diately or remotely, the instruments of atmospheric 
 influences, cannot well be refused them by any 
 person. 
 
 IV. There is still one reflection which ought not to 
 be omitted. All the changes of the weather, even the 
 most violent tempests and torrents of raim, may be 
 considered as oscillations about the mean or average 
 condition belonging to each place. All these oscilla- 
 tions are limited and transient ; the storm spends its 
 fury, the inundation passes oft*, the sky clears, the 
 calmer course of nature succeeds. In the forces which 
 produce this derangement, there is a i^iovision for 
 making it short and moderate. The osciMation stops 
 of itself, like the rolling of a ship, Avhen no longer 
 impelled by the wind. Now, why should this be so ? 
 Why should the oscillations, produced by the conflict 
 of so many laws, seemingly quite unconnected with 
 
92 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LAWS OF HEAT. AIR. 
 
 93 
 
 each other, be of this converging and subsiding cha- 
 racter ? Would it be so under all arrangements ? 
 Is it a matter of mechanical necessity that disturbance 
 must end in the restoration of the medium condition ? 
 By no means. There may be an utter subversion of 
 the equilibrium. The ship may roll too far, and may 
 capsise. The oscillations may go on, becoming larger 
 and larger, till all trace of the original condition is 
 lost ; till new forces of inequality and disturbance are 
 brought into play ; and disorder and irregularity may 
 succeed, mthout apparent limit or check in its OAvn 
 nature, like the spread of a conflagration in a city. 
 This is a possibility in any combination of mechanical 
 forces ; why does it not happen in the one now before 
 us ? By what good fortune are the powers of heat, of 
 water, of steam, of air, the effects of the earth's annual 
 and diurnal motions, and probably other causes, so 
 adjusted, that through all their struggles the elemental 
 world goes on, upon the whole, so quietly and steadily ? 
 Why is the whole fabric of the weather never utterly 
 deranged, its balance lost irrecoverably? Wliy is 
 there not an eternal conflict, such as the poets imagme 
 to take place in their chaos ? 
 
 " For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Diy, four champions fierce, 
 Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
 Their embryon atoms : — 
 
 to whom these most adhere 
 He rules a moment : Chaos umpire sits. 
 And by decision more embroils the fray." * 
 
 A state of things sometliing like that which Milton 
 
 ♦ Par. Lost, b. ii. 
 
 here seems to have imagined is, so far as we know, not 
 mechanically impossible. It miglit have continued to 
 obtain, if Hot and Cold, and Moist and Dry had not 
 been compelled to " run into their places." It will be 
 hereafter seen, that in the comparatively simple problem 
 of the solar system, a number of very peculiar adjust- 
 ments w^ere requisite, in order that the system might 
 retain a permanent form, in order that its motions 
 might have their cycles, its perturbations their limits 
 and period. The problem of the combination of such 
 laws and materials as enter into the constitution of the 
 atmosphere, is one manifestly of much greater com- 
 plexity, and indeed to us probably of insurmoimtable 
 difficulty as a mechanical problem. But all that inves* 
 tigation and analogy teach us, tends to show that it will 
 resemble the other problem in the nature oi' its result ; 
 and that certain relations of its data, and of the laws 
 of its elements, are necessary requisites, for securing 
 the stability of its mean condition, and fc>r giving a 
 small and periodical character to its deviations from 
 such a condition. 
 
 It would then be probable, from tliis reflection alone, 
 that in determining the quantity and the law and 
 intensity of the forces, of earth, water, air, and heat, 
 the same regard has been shown to the permanency 
 and stability of the terrestrial system, which may be 
 traced in the adjustment of the masses, distances, 
 positions, and motions of the bodies of the celestial 
 machine. 
 
 This permanency appears to be, of itself, a suitable 
 object of contrivance. The purpose for which the 
 
94 
 
 TERRESTIUAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 ELECTUICITY. 
 
 95 
 
 
 world was made could be answered only by its being 
 preserved. But it has appeared, from the preceding 
 part of this and the former chapter, that this per- 
 manence is a permanence of a state of things adapted 
 by the most remarkable and multiplied combinations 
 to the well-being of man, of animals, of vegetables. 
 The adjustments and conditions therefore, beyond the 
 reach of our investigation as they are, by which its 
 permanence is secured, must be conceived as fitted 
 to add, in each of the instances above adduced, to 
 the admiration which the several manifestations of 
 Intelligent Beneficence are calculated to excite. 
 
 Chap. XI.— 7%e Laws of Electricity. 
 
 Electricity undoubtedly exists in the atmosphere 
 in most states of the air ; but we know very imper- 
 fectly the laws of tliis agent, and are still more ignorant 
 of^ its atmospheric operation. The present state of 
 science does not therefore enable us to perceive those 
 adaptations of its laws to its uses, which we can discover 
 in those cases where tlie laws and the uses are both of 
 them more apparent. 
 
 We can, however, easily make out that electrical 
 agency plays a very considerable part among the clouds, 
 m their usual conditions and changes. This may be 
 easily shown by Franklin's experiment of the electrical 
 kite. The clouds are sometimes positively, sometimes 
 negatively, charged, and the rain whicli descends from 
 them offers also indications of one or other kind of 
 electricity. The changes of wind and alterations of the 
 
 form of the clouds are generally accompanied with 
 changes in these electrical indications. Every one 
 knows that a thunder- cloud is strongly charged with 
 the electric fluid, (if it be a fluid,) and that the stroke 
 of the lightning is an electrical discharge. We may 
 add that it appears, by recent experiments, that a 
 transfer of electricity between plants and the atmo- 
 sphere is perpetually going on during the process of 
 vegetation. 
 
 We cannot trace very exactly the precise circum- 
 stances, in the occurrences of the atmospheiic regions, 
 which depend on the mfluence of the laws of electricity : 
 but we are tolerably certain, from what has been 
 already noticed, that if these laws did not exist, or were 
 very different from what they now are, the action of the 
 clouds and winds, and the course of vegetation, would 
 also be other than it now is. 
 
 It is therefore at any rate very probabk that elec- 
 tricity has its appointed and important purposes in 
 the economy of the atmosphere. And this being so, 
 we may see a use in the thunder-storm and the stroke 
 of the lightning. These violent events are, ^dth regard 
 to the electricity of the atmosphere, what winds are 
 with regard to heat and moisture. They restore the 
 equilibrium where it has been disturbed, antl carry the 
 fluid from places where it is superfluous, to others 
 where it is deficient. 
 
 We are so constituted, however, that these crises 
 impress almost every one with a feeling of awe. The 
 deep lowering gloom of the thunder- cloud, the over- 
 whelming burst of the explosion, the flash from which 
 
96 
 
 TERRESTHIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 MAGNETISM. 
 
 97 
 
 Itl 
 
 the steadiest eye shrinks, and the in-esistible arrow of 
 the lightning which no earthly substance can withstand, 
 speak of something fearful, even independently of tlie 
 personal danger which they may wliisper. They 
 convey, fiw more than any other appearance does, the 
 idea of a superior and mighty power, manifesting dis- 
 pleasure and threatening punishment. Yet we find 
 that this is not the language which they speak to the 
 physical inquirer : he sees these formidable symptoms 
 only as the means or the consequences of good. What 
 office the thunderbolt and the whirlwind may have in 
 the moral world, we cannot here discuss : but certainly 
 he must speculate as far beyond the limits of philosophy 
 as of piety, who pretends to have learnt that there 
 their work has more of evil than of good. In the 
 natural world, these apparently destructive agents are, 
 like all the other movements and appearances of the 
 atmosphere, parts of a great scheme, of which every 
 discoverable purpose is marked with beneficence as weU 
 as wisdom. 
 
 Chap. XIL— The Laws of Magnetism, 
 
 Magnetism has no very obvious or apparently 
 extensive office in the mechanism of the atmosphere 
 and the earth : but the mention of it may be intro- 
 duced, because its ascertained relations to the other 
 powers wliich exist in the system are well suited to 
 show us the connection subsisting throughout the 
 universe, and to check the suspicion, if any such should 
 arise, that any law of nature is without its use. The 
 
 parts of creation when these uses are most obscure, 
 are precisely those parts when the laws themiselves are 
 least known. 
 
 When indeed we consider the vast service of which 
 magnetism is to man, by supplying him with that 
 invaluable instrument the mariner's compass, many 
 persons will require no further evidence of this pro- 
 perty being introduced into the frame of things with a 
 worthy purpose. As however, we have hitherto excluded 
 use in the arts from our line of argument, we shall not 
 here make any exception in favour of navigation, and 
 what we shall observe belongs to another "s iew of the 
 subject. 
 
 Magnetism has been discovered in modern times to 
 have so close a connexion with galvanism, that they 
 may be said to be almost different aspects of the same 
 agent. All the phenomena wliich we can produce with 
 magnets, we can imitate with coils of gahanic wire. 
 That galvanism exists in the earth, we need no proof. 
 Electricity, which appears to differ from galvanic 
 currents, much in the same manner in which a fluid at 
 rest differs from a fluid in motion, appears to be only 
 galvanism in equilibrium, is there in abundance ; and 
 recently, Mr. Fox* has shown by experiment that 
 metalliferous veins, as they lie in the earth, exercise a 
 galvanic influence on each other. Somethnig of this 
 kind might have been anticipated ; for masses of metal 
 in contact, if they differ in temperature or other 
 circumstances, are kno^vn to produce a galvanic 
 current. Hence we have undoubtedly streams of galvanic 
 
 * Phil. Trans., 1831. 
 
 J 
 
98 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LIGHT AND PLANTS. 
 
 99 
 
 II 
 
 influence moving along in the earth. Whether or not 
 such causes as these produce the directive power of 
 the magnetic needle, we cannot here pretend to decide; 
 they can hardly fail to affect it. The Aiu-ora Borealis 
 too, probably an electrical phenomenon, is said, under 
 particular circumstances, to agitate the magnetic needle. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that, if electricity have 
 an important office in the atmosphere, magnetism 
 should exist in the earth. It seems, hkely, that the 
 magnetic properties of the earth may be collateral 
 results of the e:dstence of the same cause by which 
 electrical agency operates; an agency whicli, as we 
 have already seen, lias important offices in the processes 
 of vegetable life. And thus magnetism belongs to the 
 same system of beneficial contrivance to which elec- 
 tricity has been already traced. 
 
 We see, however, on this subject very dimly and a 
 very small way. It can hardly be doubted tliat 
 magnetism has other functions than those we have 
 noticed. 
 
 Chap. XIII.— TV^e Properties of Lirjit ivith regard to Vegetation. 
 
 The illuminating power of light will come under our 
 consideration hereafter. Its agency, with regard to 
 organic life, is too important not to be noticed, though 
 this must be done briefly. Light appears to be as neces- 
 sary to the health of plants as air or moisture. A plant 
 may, indeed, grow without it, but it does not appear 
 that a species could be so continued. Under such a 
 privation, the parts which are usually green, assume a 
 
 
 white colour, as is the case with vegetables grown in a 
 cellar, or protected by a covermg for the sake of 
 producing this very effect; thus, celery is in this 
 manner blanched, or etiolated. 
 
 The part of the process of vegetable life for which 
 light is especially essential, appears to be the functions 
 of the leaves ; these are affected by this agent in a 
 very remarkable manner. The moistm-e wliich plants 
 imbibe is, by their vital energies, carried to their leaves ; 
 and is there brought in contact with the atmosphere, 
 which, besides other ingredients, contains, in general, 
 a portion of carbonic acid. So long as light is present, 
 the leaf decomposes the carbonic acid, appropriates 
 the carbon to the formation of its own prcper juices, 
 and returns the disengaged oxygen into the atmos- 
 phere ; thus restoring the atmospheric aii* to a con- 
 dition in which it is more fitted than it was before for 
 the support of animal life. The plant thus prepares the 
 support of life for other creatures at the same time that 
 it absorbs its own. The greenness of those members 
 which affect that colour, and the disengagement of 
 oxygen, are the indications that its vital powders are in 
 healthful action : as soon as we remove light from the 
 plant, these indications cease : it has no longer power to 
 imbibe carbon and disengage oxygen, but, on the con- 
 trary, it gives back some of the carbon ah'eady obtained, 
 and robs the atmosphere of oxygen for the pui'pose of 
 re-converting this into carbonic acid. 
 
 It cannot well be conceived that such effects of light 
 
 on vegetables, as we have described, should occm% if 
 
 that agent, of whatever nature it is, and those organs, 
 
 h2 
 
100 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 had not been adapted to each other. But the subject 
 is here introduced that the reader may the more readily 
 receive the conviction of combining purpose which 
 must arise, on finding that an agent, possessing these 
 very peculiar chemical properties, is employed to 
 produce also those effects of illumination, vision, &c., 
 which form the most obvious portion of the properties 
 of light. 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Sound. 
 
 Besides the function which air discharges as the 
 great agent in the changes of meteorology and vege- 
 tation, it has another office, also of great and extensive 
 importance, as the vehicle of sound. 
 
 I. The communication of sound through the air takes 
 place by means of a process altogether different from 
 anything of which we have yet spoken : namely, by the 
 propagation of minute vibrations of the particles from 
 one part of the fluid mass to another, without any local 
 motion of the fluid itself. 
 
 Perhaps we may most distinctly conceive the kind of 
 effect here si)oken of, by comparing it to the motion 
 produced by the wind in a field of standing corn ; 
 grassy waves travel visibly over the field, in the direction 
 in which the wind blows, but this appearance of an 
 object moving is delusive. The only real motion is 
 that of the ears of grain, of which each goes and 
 returns, as the stalk stoops and recovers itself. This 
 motion affects successively a Hne of ears in the direction 
 of the wind, and affects simultaneously all those ears of 
 
 SOUND. 
 
 101 
 
 which the elevation or depression forms one visible 
 wave. The elevations and depressions are propagated 
 in a constant direction, while the parts witb which the 
 space is filled only vibrate to and fro. Of exactly such 
 a nature is the propagation of sound through the air. * 
 The particles of air go and return through very minute 
 spaces, and this vibratory motion runs through the 
 atmosphere from the sounding body to the ear. Waves, 
 not of elevation and depression, but of condensation 
 and rarefaction, are transmitted ; and the sound thus 
 becomes an object of sense to the organ. 
 
 Another familiar instance of the pro];agation of 
 vibrations we have in the circles on the surface of 
 smooth water, which diverge from the point where it is 
 touched by a small object, as a drop of rain. In the 
 beginning of a shower for instance, when the drops 
 come distinct, though frequent, we may see each drop 
 giving rise to a ring, formed of two or three close 
 concentric circles, which grow and spread, leaving the 
 interior of the circles smooth, and gradually reaching 
 parts of the surface more and more distant; from their 
 origin. In this instance, it is clearly not a portion of 
 the water which flows onwards ; but the disturbance, 
 the rise and fall of the surface which makes the ring- 
 formed waves, passes into wider and wider circles, and 
 thus the undulation is transmitted from its starting- 
 place, to points in all directions on the surface of the 
 
 fluid. 
 
 The diffusion of these ring-formed undulations from 
 their centre resembles the diffusion of a sound from 
 the place where it is produced to the points where it is 
 
102 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 heard. The disturhance, or vibration, by which it is 
 conveyed, travels at the same rate in all directions, and 
 the waves which are propagated are hence of a circular 
 form. They differ, however, from those on the surface 
 of water ; for sound is communicated upwards and 
 downw^ards, and in all intermediate directions, as w^ell 
 as horizontally ; hence the waves of sound are spherical, 
 the point where the sound is produced being the centre 
 of the sphere. 
 
 This diffusion of vibrations in spherical shells of 
 successive condensation and rarefaction, will easily be 
 seen to be different from any local motion of the 
 air, as wind, and to be independent of that. The 
 cu'cles on the surface of water will spread on a river 
 which is flowing, x)rovided it be smooth, as wxll as on 
 a standing canal. 
 
 Not only are such undulations projiagated almost 
 undisturbed by any local motion of the fluid in which 
 they take place, but also, many may be joropagated in 
 the same fluid at the same time, without disturbing 
 each other. We may see this effect on water. When 
 several drops fall near each other, the circles which 
 they produce cross each other, without either of them 
 being lost, and the separate courses of the rings may 
 still be traced. 
 
 All these consequences, both in water, in air, and in 
 any other fluid, can be very exactly investigated upon 
 mechanical principles, and the greater part of the 
 phenomena can thus be shown to result from the 
 properties of the fluids. 
 
 There are several remarkable circumstances in the 
 
 SOUND. 
 
 103 
 
 way in which air answers its purpose as the vehicle of 
 sound, of which we will now point out a few. 
 
 II. The loudness of sound is such as is convenient 
 for common purposes. The organs of speech can, in 
 the present constitution of the air, produce, without 
 fatigue, such a tone of voice as can be heard with 
 distinctness and with comfort. That any great alte- 
 ration in this element might be incommodious, we may 
 judge from the difticulties to which persons are subject 
 who are dull of hearing, and from the disagreeable 
 effects of a voice much louder than usual, or so low as 
 to be indistinct. Sounds produced by the human 
 organs, with other kinds of air, are very different from 
 those in our common air. If a man inhale a quantity 
 of hydrogen gas, and then speak, his voice is scarcely 
 audible. 
 
 The loudness of sounds becomes smaller in propor- 
 tion as they come from a greater distance. This enables 
 us to judge of the distance of objects, in sAme degree 
 at least, by the sounds which proceed from them. 
 Moreover it is found that we can judge of the position 
 of objects by the ear : and this judgment seems to be 
 formed by comparhig the loudness of the impression 
 of the same sound on the two ears and bvo sides of 
 
 the head.* 
 
 The loudness of sounds appears to depend on the 
 extent of vibration of the particles of air, and this is 
 determined by the vibrations of the sounding body. 
 
 III. The pitch or the differences of acute and grave, 
 in sounds, form another important property, and one 
 
 * Mr. Gough in Manch. Mem. vol. 
 
104 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 which fits them for a great part of then- pm'poses. 
 By the association of different notes, Ave have all the 
 results of melody and ]iarmony in musical sound ; and 
 of intonation and modulation of the voice, of accent, 
 cadence, emphasis, expression, passion, in speech. The 
 song of birds, which is one of their principal modes of 
 communication, dej^ends chiefly for its distinctions and 
 its significance upon the combinations of acute and grave. 
 
 These differences are produced by the different 
 rapidity of vibration of the particles of air. Tlie 
 gravest sound has about thirty vibrations in a second, 
 the most acute about one thousand. Between these 
 limits each sound lias a musical character, and from 
 the different relations of the number of vibrations in 
 a second arise all the differences of musical intervals, 
 concords and discords. 
 
 IV. The quality of sounds is another of their diffe- 
 rences. This is the name given to the difference of 
 notes of the same pitch, that is the same note as to 
 acute and grave, when produced by different instru- 
 ments. If a flute and a vioHn be in unison, the notes 
 are still quite different sounds. It is this kind of 
 difference which distinguishes the voice of one man 
 from that of another : and it is manifestly therefore 
 one of gTeat consequence : since it connects the voice 
 with the particular person, and is almost necessary in 
 order that language may be a medium of intercourse 
 between men. 
 
 y. The articulate character of sounds is for us one 
 of the most important arrangements which exist in the 
 world ; for it is by this that sounds become the inter- 
 
 SOUND. 
 
 105 
 
 preters of thought, will, and feeling, the means by 
 which a person can convey his wants, his instructions, 
 liis promises, his kindness, to others ; by which one 
 man can regulate the actions and influence the con- 
 victions and judgments of another. It is in virtue of 
 the possibility of shaping air into words, that the 
 imperceptible vibrations which a man i)roduces in the 
 atmosphere, become some of his most important actions, 
 the foundations of the highest moral and socijil relations, 
 and the condition and instrument of all the advancement 
 and improvement of which he is susceptible. 
 
 It appears that the differences of articulate sound 
 arise from the different form of the cavity through 
 which the sound is made to proceed immediately 
 after being produced. In the human voices the sound 
 is produced in the larynx, and modified by the cavity 
 of the mouth, and the various organs which surround 
 this cavity. The laws by" which articulate sounds are 
 thus produced have not yet been fully developed, but 
 appear to be in the progress of being so. 
 
 The properties of sounds which have been mentioned, 
 differences of loudness, of pitch, of quality, and articu- 
 lation, appear to be all requisite in order that somid 
 shall answer its purposes in the economy of animal 
 and of human life. And how was the air made capable 
 of conveying these four differences, at the same time 
 that the organs were made capable of producing them ? 
 Surely by a most refined and skilful adaptation, appHed 
 with a most comprehensive design. 
 
 YI. Agam ; is it by chance that the air and the ear 
 exist together ? Did the air produce the organisation 
 
106 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 of the ear ? or the ear, independently organised, anti- 
 cipate the constitution of the atmosphere ? Or is not 
 the only intelligible account of the matter, tliis, that 
 one was made for the other : that there is a mutual 
 adaptation produced by an Intelligence which was 
 acquainted with the properties of both ; which adjusted 
 them to each other as we find them adjusted, in order 
 that birds might communicate by song, that men might 
 speak and hear, and that language might play its extra- 
 ordinary part in its operation upon men's thoughts^ 
 actions, institutions, and fortunes ? 
 
 The vibrations of an elastic fluid like the air, and 
 their properties, follow from the laws of motion ; and 
 whether or not these laws of the motion of fluids might 
 in reality have been other than they are, they appear 
 to us inseparably connected with the existence of 
 matter, and as much a thing of necessity as we can 
 conceive anything in the universe to be. The propa- 
 gation of such vibrations, therefore, and their pro- 
 perties, we may at present allow to be a necessary part 
 of the constitution of the atmosphere. But what is it 
 that makes these vibrations become sound ? How is 
 it that they produce such an efl'ect on our senses, and, 
 through those, on our minds ? The vibrations of the 
 air seem to be of themselves no more fitted to pro- 
 duce sound than to produce smell. We know that 
 such vibrations do not universally produce sound, 
 but only between certain limits. When the vibra- 
 tions are fewer than thirty in a second, they are per- 
 ceived as separate throbs, and not as a continued 
 sound ; and there is a certain limit of rapidity, beyond 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 107 
 
 which the vibrations become inaudible. This limit is 
 different to different ears, and we are thus assured by 
 one person's ear that there are vibrations, though to 
 that of another they do not produce sound. How was 
 the human ear adapted so that its perception of vibra- 
 tions as sounds should fall within these limits ? — the 
 very limits within which the vibrations fall, which it 
 most concerns us to perceive ; those of the human 
 voice for instance ? How nicely are the organs adjusted 
 with regard to the most minute mechanical motions of 
 the elements ! 
 
 Chap. XV. — The Atmosphere. 
 
 We have considered in succession a number of tlie 
 propei'tie.s and operations of the atmosphere., and have 
 found them separately very curious. But an additional 
 interest belongs to the subject when we consider them 
 as combined. The atmosphere under this point of 
 view must appear a contrivance of the most extraor- 
 dinary kind. To answer any of its pm^poses, to carry 
 on any of its processes, separately, requires peculiar 
 arrangements and adjustments ; to answer a.ll at once, 
 purposes so varied, to combine without confusion so 
 many different trains, implies powers and attributes 
 which can hardly fail to excite in a liigh degiee our 
 admiration and reverence. 
 
 If the atmosphere be considered as a vast machine, 
 it is difiicult to form any just conception of the pro- 
 found skill and comprehensiveness pf desigjn which it 
 displays. It diffuses and tempers the heat of different 
 
108 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 climates ; for this purpose it performs a circulation 
 occupying the whole range from the pole to the equator ; 
 and while it is doing this, it executes many smaller 
 cii'cuits between the sea and the land. At the same 
 time, it is the means of forming clouds and rain, and 
 for this purpose, a perpetual circulation of the watery 
 part of the atmosphere goes on between its lower and 
 upper regions. Besides this complication of circuits, 
 it exercises a more irregular agency, in the occasional 
 winds wliich blow from all quarters, tending perpetually 
 to restore the equilibrium of heat and moisture. But 
 this incessant and multiplied activity discharges only a 
 part of the functions of the air. It is, moreover, the 
 most important and universal material of the gTowth 
 and sustenance of plants and animals ; and is for this 
 purpose every where present and almost unifgnn in its 
 quantity. With all its local motion, it has also the 
 office of a medium of communication between intel- 
 ligent creatures, which office it performs by another set 
 of motions, entirely different both from the circulation 
 and the occasional movements already mentioned ; 
 these different kinds of motions not interfering mate- 
 rially with each other : and this last purpose, so 
 remote from the others in its nature, it answers in a 
 manner so perfect and so easy, that we cannot 
 imagine that the object could have been more com- 
 pletely attained, if this had been the sole purpose 
 for which the atmosphere had been created. With 
 all these qualities, this extraordinary part of our 
 terrestrial system is scarcely ever in the way: and 
 when we have occasion to do so, we put forth our 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 109 
 
 hand and push it aside, mthout being awsire of its 
 being near us. 
 
 We may add, that it is, in addition to all that we 
 have hitherto noticed, a constant source of utility and 
 beauty in its effects on light. Without air we should 
 see notliing, except objects on which the sun's rays fell, 
 dii-ectly or by reflection. It is the atmosphere which 
 converts sunbeams into daylight, and fills the space in 
 which we are with illumination. 
 
 The contemplation of the atmosphere, as a machine 
 which answers all these purposes, is well suited to 
 impress upon us the strongest conviction of the most 
 refined, far-seeing, and far-ruling contrivance. It seems 
 impossible to suppose that these various properties 
 were so bestowed and so combmed, any otherwise than 
 by a beneficent and intelligent Being, able and willing 
 to diffuse organisation, life, health, and enjoyment 
 through all parts of the visible world ; possessing a 
 fertility of means which no multiplicity of objects could 
 exliaust, and a discrimination of consequences which 
 no complication of conditions could embarrass. 
 
 CHAr. XYL— Light. 
 
 Besides the hearing and sound there is another 
 mode by which we become sensible of the impressions 
 of external objects, namely, sight and light. This 
 subject also offers some observations bearing on our 
 present purpose. 
 
 It has been declared by writers on Natural Theology, 
 that the human eye exliibits such evidence of design 
 
110 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 and skill in its construction, that no one, who considers 
 it attentively, can resist this impression : nor does 
 this appear to he saying too much. It must, at the 
 same time, be obvious that this construction of the eye 
 could not answer its purposes, except the constitution 
 of light corresponded to it. Light is an element of the 
 most peculiar kind and properties, and such an element 
 can hardly be conceived to have been placed in the 
 universe without a regard to its operation and functions. 
 As the eye is made for light, so light must have been 
 made, at least among other ends, for the eye. 
 
 I. We must expect to comprehend imperfectly only 
 the mechanism of the elements. Still, we have endea- 
 voured to show that in some instances the arrange- 
 ments by which their purposes are affected, are, to 
 a certain extent, intelligible. In order to explain, 
 however, in what manner Hght answers those ends 
 which appear to us its principal ones, we must know 
 something of the nature of light. There have, hitherto, 
 been, among men of science, two prevaiHng opinions 
 upon tliis subject: some considering light as consisting 
 in the emission of luminous particles ; others accounting 
 for its phenomena by the in'opagation of vibrations 
 through a highly subtle and elastic ether. The former 
 opinion has, till lately, been most generally entertained 
 in this country, having been the hypothesis on which 
 Newton made his calculations ; the latter is the one to 
 which most of those persons have been led, who, in 
 recent times, have endeavoiu'ed to deduce general con- 
 clusions from the newly discovered phenomena of light. 
 Among these persons, the theory of undulations is 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 conceived to be established in nearly the same manner, 
 and almost as certainly, as the doctrine of universal 
 gravitation ; namely, by a series of laws infi^rred from 
 numerous facts, which, proceeding from difi'erent sets 
 of phenomena, are found to converge to one common 
 view; and by calculations founded upon the theory, 
 which, indicating new and untried facts, are found to 
 agree exactly with experiment. 
 
 We cannot here introduce a sketch of the progi-ess 
 by which the phenomena have thus led to the acceptance 
 of the theory of undulations. But this theory appears 
 to have such claims to our assent,^ that the views wliich 
 we have to offer with regard to the design exercised in 
 the adaptation of light to its purposes, will depend on 
 the undulatory theory, so far as they depend on theory 
 at all.* 
 
 II. The impressions of sight, like those of hearing, 
 differ in intensity and in kind. Brightness and Colour 
 are the principal differences among visible things, as 
 loudness and pitch are among sounds. But there is 
 a singular distinction between these senses in one 
 respect : every object and part of an object seen, is 
 necessarily and inevitably referred to some position in 
 the space before us ; and hence visible things have 
 place, magnitude, form, as well as Hght, shade, and 
 colour. There is nothing analogous to this in the sense 
 of hearing; for though w^e can, in some approximate 
 
 * The reader who is acquainted with the two theories of light, will 
 perceive that though we have adopted the doctrine of the ether, the 
 greater part of the arguments adduced would be equally forcible, if 
 expressed in the language of the theory of emission. 
 
112 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 degree, guess the situation of the point from which a sound 
 proceeds, this is a secondary process, distinguishable 
 from the perception of the sound itself; whereas we 
 cannot conceive visible things without form and place. 
 
 The law according to which the sense of vision is 
 thus affected, appears to be this. By the properties of 
 light, the external scene produces, through the trans- 
 parent parts of the eye, an image or picture exactly 
 resembling the reality, upon the back part of the retina : 
 and each point which we see is seen in the direction of 
 a Hne passing from its image on the retina, through 
 tlie centre of the pupil of the eye.* In this manner we 
 perceive by the eye the situation of every point, at the 
 same time that we perceive its existence ; and by 
 combining the situations of many points, we have 
 forms and outlines of every sort. 
 
 That we should receive from the eye this notice of 
 
 the position of the object as well as of its other visible 
 
 qualities, appears to be absolutely necessary for our 
 
 intercourse with the external world ; and the faculty of 
 
 doing so is so intimate a part of our constitution that 
 
 we cannot conceive ourselves divested of it. Yet m 
 
 order to imagine ourselves destitute of this faculty, we 
 
 have only to suppose that the eye should receive its 
 
 impressions as the ear does, and should apprehend red 
 
 and green, bright and dark, without placing them side 
 
 by side ; as the ear takes in the different sounds which 
 
 compose a concert, without attributing them to different 
 
 parts of space. 
 
 * Or rather through the focal centre of the eye, which is always near 
 the centre of the pupil. 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 113 
 
 The peculiar property thus belonging to vision, of 
 perceiving position, is so essential to us, that we may 
 readily believe that some i)articular i)rovision has been 
 made for its existence. The remarkable mechanism of 
 the eye (precisely resembling that of a camera obscura) 
 by which it produces an image on the neivous web 
 forming its hinder part, seems to have this effect for 
 its main object. And this mechanism necessarily 
 supposes certain corresponding properties in light 
 itself, by means of which such an effect becomes 
 possible. 
 
 The main properties of light which are concerned in 
 this arrangement, are reflexion and refraction : re- 
 flexion, by which light is reflected and scattered by all 
 objects, and thus comes to the eye from all : and 
 refraction, by which its course is bent, when it passes 
 obliquely out of one transparent medium into another ; 
 and by which, consequentl}^ convex transparent sub- 
 stances, such as the cornea and humours of the eye, 
 possess the power of making the light com erge to a 
 focus or point ; an assemblage of such i)oints forming 
 the images on the retina, which wx have mentioned. 
 
 Beflexion and refraction are therefore the; essential 
 and indispensable properties of light ; and so far as we 
 can miderstand, it appears that it was necessary that 
 light should possess such properties, in order that it 
 might form a medium of communication bet•;^^een man 
 and the external world. We may consider its power of 
 passing through transparent media (as air) to be given 
 in order that it may enlighten the earth ; its affection 
 of reflexion, for the purpose of making colours visible ; 
 
114 
 
 TEUKESTRIAL ADAPTATIO>'S. 
 
 i ' 
 
 and its refraction to be bestowed, that it may enable us 
 to discriminate figure and position, by means of the 
 
 lenses of the eye. 
 
 In this manner light may be considered as consti- 
 tuted with a peculiar reference to the eyes of animals, 
 and its leading properties may be looked upon as 
 contrivances or adaptations to fit it for its visual office. 
 And in such a point of view the perfection of the 
 contrivance or adaptation must be allowed to be very 
 
 remarkable. 
 
 III. But besides the properties of reflexion and re- 
 fraction, the most obvious laws of hght, an extraordinary 
 variety of phenomena have lately been discovered, 
 regulated by other laws of the most curious knid, 
 uniting great complexity with great symmetry. We 
 refer to the phenomena of diffraction, polarisation, and 
 periodical colours, produced by crystals and by thin 
 plates. We have, in these facts, a. vast mass of pro- 
 perties and laws, offering a subject of study which 
 has been pursued with eminent skill and intelhgence. 
 But these properties and laws, so far as has yet been 
 discovered, exert no agency whatever, and have no 
 pui7)0se, in the general economy of nature. Beams of 
 light polarised in contrary directions exliibit the most 
 remarkable differences when they pass through certain 
 crystals, but manifest no discoverable difference in 
 their immediate impression on the eye. We have, 
 therefore, here a number of laws of light, which we 
 cannot perceive to be established with any design which 
 has a reference to the other parts of the universe. 
 Undoubtedly it is exceedingly possible that these 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 115 
 
 differences of light may operate in some quarter, and 
 in some way, which we cannot detect ; and that these 
 laws may have purposes and may answer ends of which 
 we have no suspicion. All the analogy of nature 
 teaches us a lesson of humility, with regard to the 
 reliance we are to place on our discermnent and 
 judgment as to such matters. But with our present 
 knowledge we may observe, tliat this curious system 
 of phenomena appears to be a collateral result of the 
 mechanism by which the effects of Hght are produced ; 
 and therefore a necessary consequence of the existence 
 of that element of which the offices are so numerous 
 and so beneficent. 
 
 The new properties of light, and the speculations 
 founded upon them, have led many persons to the 
 belief of the undulatory theory ; which, as we have said, 
 is considered by some i)hilosophers as demonstrated. 
 If we adopt this theory, we consider the luminiferous 
 ether to have no local motion : and to produce refrac- 
 tion and reflexion by the operation of its elasticity 
 alone. We must necessarily suppose the tenuity of the 
 ether to be extreme; and if we moreover suppose its 
 tension to be very gTeat, w^hich the vast velocity of 
 light requires us to supjiose, the vibrations by which 
 light is propagated will be transverse vibrations, that is, 
 the motion to and fro will be athwart the line along 
 which the undulation travels. The reader may perhaps 
 aid his conception of this motion, by attending to the 
 imdulation of a long pendant streaming in the wind 
 from the mast-head of a ship : he vaR see that while the 
 
 undulation runs visibly along the strip of cloth, from 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 LIGHT. 
 
 117 
 
 
 tlie mast-head to the loose end, every part of the strip 
 in succession moves to and fro across this line. 
 
 From this transverse character in the luminiferous 
 vibrations, all the laws of polarisation necessarily 
 follow: and the properties of transverse vibrations, 
 combined with the properties of vibrations in general, 
 give rise to all the curious and numerous phenomena 
 of colours of which we have spoken. If the vibrations 
 be transverse, they may be resolved into two different 
 planes ; this is ijolarisation : if they fall on a medium 
 which has different elasticity in different directions, 
 they will be divided into two sets of vibrations ; this is 
 double refraction : and so on. Some of the new pro- 
 perties, however, as the fringes of shadows and the 
 colours of thin plates, follow from the undulatory 
 theory, whether the vibrations be transverse or not. 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that the propagation of 
 light by means of a subtle medium, leads necessarily 
 to the extraordinary collection of properties wliich have 
 recently been discovered; and, at any rate, its pro- 
 pagation by the transverse vibrations of such a medium 
 does lead inevitably to these results. 
 
 Leaving it therefore to future times to point out the 
 other reasons (or uses if they exist) of these newly 
 discovered properties of light, in their bearing on other 
 parts of the world, we may venture to say, that if light 
 was to be propagated through transparent media by the 
 undulations of a subtle fluid, these properties must 
 result, as necessarily as the rainbow results from the 
 unequal refrangibility of different colours. Tliis phe- 
 nomenon and those, appear alike to be the collateral 
 
 consequences of the laws impressed on light with a 
 view to its principal offices. 
 
 Thus the exquisitely beautiful and symmetrical 
 phenomena and laws of polarisation, and of crystalline 
 and other effects, may be looked upon as indications of 
 the delicacy and subtlety of the mechanism by wliich 
 man, through his visual organs, is put in commimi- 
 cation with the external world; is made acquainted 
 with the forms and qualities of objects in the most 
 remote regions of space; and is enabled, in some 
 measure, to determine liis position and relation in a 
 universe in which he is but an atom. 
 
 IV. If we suppose it clearly established tliat light is 
 produced by the vibrations of an ether, W(i find con- 
 siderations offer themselves, similar to those which 
 occurred in the case of sound. The vibrations of this 
 ether affect our organs with the sense oi' light and 
 colour. Why, or how do they do this ? It is only 
 within certain limits that the effect is produced, and 
 these limits are comparatively narrower here than in 
 the case of sound. The whole scale of colour, from 
 violet to crimson, lies between vibrations which are 
 458 million millions, and 727 milhon millions in a 
 second; a proportion much smaller than the corres- 
 ponding ratio for perceptible sounds. VUiy should 
 such vibrations produce perception in the eye, and no 
 others ? There must be here some peculiar adajDtation 
 of the sensitive powers to these wonderfully minute and 
 condensed mechanical motions. What happens when 
 the vibrations are slower than the red, or quicker than 
 the blue ? They do not produce vision : do they 
 
118 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 THE ETHER. 
 
 119 
 
 produce any effect ? Have they anything to do with 
 heat or with electricity ? We cannot tell. The ether 
 must be as susceptible of these vibrations, as of those 
 which produce vision. But the mechanism of the eye 
 is adjusted to tliis latter kind only ; and this precise 
 kind, (whether alone or mixed with others,) proceeds 
 from the sun and fi'om other luminaries, and thus 
 communicates to us the state of the visible universe. 
 The mere matenal elements then are full of properties 
 which we can understand no otherwise, than as the 
 results of a refined contrivance. 
 
 Chap. XVll.—Tke Ether. 
 
 In what has just been said, we have spoken of light, 
 only with respect to its power of illuminating objects, 
 and conveying the impression of them to the eye. It 
 possesses, however, beyond all doubt, many other 
 qualities. Light is intimately connected with heat, as 
 we see in the case of the sun and of flame ; yet it is 
 clear that light and heat are not identical. Light is 
 evidently connected too with electricity and galvanism; 
 and perhaps through these, with magnetism : it is, as 
 has already been mentioned, indispensably necessary 
 to the healthy discharge of the fmictions of vegetable 
 life ; without it plants cannot duly exercise their vital 
 powers : it manifests also chemical action in various 
 ways. 
 
 The luminiferous ether then, if we so call the medium 
 in which light is propagated, must possess many other 
 properties besides those mechanical ones on which the 
 
 illuminating power depends. It must not be merely 
 like a fluid poured into the vacant spaces and interstices 
 of the material world, and exercismg no action on 
 objects ; it must affect the physical, chemical, and vital 
 powers of what it touches. It must be a great and 
 active agent in the work of the universe, as well as an 
 active reporter of what is done by other agents. It 
 must possess a number of complex and refined con- 
 trivances and adjustments wbich we cannot analyse, 
 bearing upon plants and chemical compounds, and the 
 imponderable agents ; as well as those laws which we 
 conceive that we have analysed, by which it is the 
 vehicle of illumination and vision. 
 
 We have had occasion to point out how complex is 
 the machinery of the atmosphere, and how varied its 
 objects; since, besides being the means of commu- 
 nication as the medium of sound, it has known laws, 
 which connect it witli heat and moisture ; and other 
 laws, in virtue of which it is decomposed by vegetables. 
 It appears, in lilve manner, that the ether is not only 
 the vehicle of light, but has also laws, at present 
 unknown, which connect it with heat, electricity, and 
 other agencies; and other laws through which it is 
 necessary to vegetables, enabling them to decompose 
 air. All analogy leads us to suppose that if we knew 
 as much of the constitution of the lummiferous ether 
 as we know of the constitution of the atmosphere, we 
 should find it a macliine as complex and artificial, as 
 skilfully and admirably constructed. 
 
 We know at present very little indeed of the con- 
 struction of this machine. Its existence is, perhaps, 
 
N 
 
 I 
 
 120 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 satisfactorily made out ; in order that we may not 
 interrupt the progress of our argument, we shall refer 
 to other works for the reasonings which appear to lead 
 to this conclusion. But whether heat, electricity, 
 galvanism, magnetism, be fluids ; or effects or modi- 
 fications of fluids ; and whether such fluids or ethers be 
 the same with the luminiferous ether, or with each 
 other ; are questions of which all or most appear to be 
 at present undecided, and it would be presumptuous 
 and premature here to take one side or the other. 
 
 The mere fact, however, that there is such an ether, 
 and that it has properties related to other agents, in 
 the way we have suggested, is well calculated to extend 
 our views of the structure of the universe, and of the 
 resources, if we may so speak, of the power by which 
 it is arranged. The solid and fluid matter of the earth 
 is the most obvious to our senses ; over this, and in its 
 cavities, is poured an invisible fluid, the air, by which 
 warmth and life are diffused and fostered, and by which 
 men communicate with men : over and through this 
 again, and reaching, so far as we know, to the utmost 
 bounds of the universe, is spread another most subtle 
 and attenuated fluid, which, by the play of another set 
 of agents, aids the energies of nature, and which, 
 filling all parts of space, is a means of communication 
 with other planets and other systems. 
 
 There is nothing in all this like any material 
 necessity, compelling the w^orld to be as it is and no 
 otherv\4se. How should the properties of these three 
 great classes of agents, visible objects, air, and light, 
 so harmonise and assist eaeh other, that order and life 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 121 
 
 should be the result ? Without all the three, and all 
 the three constituted in their present manner, and 
 subject to their present laws, living things could not 
 exist. If the earth had no atmosphere, or if the world 
 had no ether, all must be inert and dead. Who con- 
 structed these three extraordmarily complex pieces of 
 machinery, the earth with its productions, the atmos- 
 phere, and the ether ? Who fitted them into each 
 other in many parts, and thus made it possible for them 
 to work together ? We conceive there can be but one 
 answer ; a most wise and good God. 
 
 Chap. XVIII. — Recapitulation, 
 
 I. It has been shown in the preceding chapters that 
 a great number of quantities and laws appear to have 
 been selected in the construction of the universe ; and 
 that by the adjustment to each other of the magnitudes 
 and laws thus selected, the constitution of the world is 
 w^hat we find it, and is fitted for the suppc»rt of vege- 
 tables and animals, in a manner in which it could not 
 have been, if the proi)erties and quantiiies of the 
 elements had been different from what they are. We 
 shall here recapitulate the principal of the laws and mag- 
 nitudes to w^liich this conclusion has been shown to apply. 
 
 1. The Length of the Year, which depends on the 
 force of the attraction of the sun, and its distance from 
 the earth. 
 
 2. The Length of tlie Day. 
 
 3. The Mass of the Earth, which depends on its 
 magnitude and density. 
 
 :l: 
 
V) 
 
 122 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 4. The Magnitude of the Ocean. 
 
 6. The Magnitude of the Atmosphere. 
 
 6. The Law and Eate of the Conducting Power of 
 the Earth. 
 
 7. The Law and Rate of the Eadiating Power of the 
 Earth. 
 
 8. The Law and Eate of the Expansion of Water 
 by Heat. 
 
 9. The Law and Eate of the Expansion of Water 
 by cold, below 40 degrees. 
 
 10. The Law and Quantity of the Expansion of 
 Water in Freezing. 
 
 11. The Quantity of Latent Heat absorbed in 
 Thawing. 
 
 12. The Quantity of Latent Heat absorbed in 
 Evaporation. 
 
 18. The Law and Eate of Evaporation with regard 
 to Heat. 
 
 14. The Law and Eate of the Expansion of Air by 
 Heat. 
 
 15. The Quantity of Heat absorbed in the Expan- 
 sion of Air. 
 
 16. The Law and Eate of the Passage of Aqueous 
 Vapour through Air. 
 
 17. The Laws of Electricity; its relations to Air 
 and Moisture. 
 
 18. The Fluidity, Density, and Elasticity of the Air, 
 by means of which its vibrations produce Sound. 
 
 19. The Fluidity, Density, and Elasticity of the 
 Ether, by means of which its vibrations produce light. 
 
 II. These are the data, the elements, as astronomers 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 123 
 
 call the quantities which determine a planet's orbit, on 
 which the mere inorganic part of the universe is 
 constructed. To these, the constitution of the organic 
 world is adapted in innumerable points, by laws of 
 which we can trace the results, though \ve cannot 
 analyse their machinery. Thus, the vital functions of 
 vegetables have periods which correspond to the length 
 of the year, and of the day ; their vital powers have 
 forces which correspond to the force of gravity ; the 
 sentient faculties of man are such that the vibrations 
 of air, (within certain limits,) ai'e perceived as sound, 
 those of ether, as light. And while we are enumerating 
 these correspondencies, we perceive that there are 
 thousands of others, and that we can only select a very 
 small number of those where the relation hai>pens to be 
 most clearly made out or most easily explained. 
 
 Now, in the Hst of tlie mathematical elements of the 
 universe wliich has just been given, why have we such 
 laws and such quantities as there occur, and no other ? 
 For the most part, the data there enumerated are 
 independent of each other, and might be altered sepa- 
 rately, so far as the mechanical conditions of the case 
 are concerned. Some of these data probably depend 
 on each other : thus the latent heat of aqueous vapour 
 is perhaps connected with the difference of the rate of 
 expansion of water and of steam : but all natural 
 philosophers will, probably, agree, that tliere must be, 
 in this list, a great number of things entirely without 
 any mutual dependence, as the year and the day, the 
 expansion of air and the expansion of steam. There 
 are, therefore, it appears, a number of things which, in 
 
124 
 
 TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 
 
 tlie structure of the world, might have been otherwise, 
 and wliich are what they are in consequence of choice 
 or of chance. We have akeady seen, in many of the 
 cases separately, how unlike chance every thing looks : 
 — that substances, which might have existed any how, 
 so far as they themselves are concerned, exist exactly 
 in such a manner and measiu-e as they should, to secure 
 the welfare of other things : — that the laws are tempered 
 and fitted together in the only way in which the world 
 could have gone on, according to all that we can 
 conceive of it. This must, therefore, be the work of 
 choice ; and if so, it cannot be doubted, of a most wise 
 and benevolent Chooser. 
 
 III. The appearance of choice is still further illus- 
 trated by the variety as well as the number of the laws 
 selected. The laws are unlike one another. Steam 
 certainly expands at a very different rate from air by 
 the application of heat, probably according to a different 
 law : water expands in freezing, but mercury contracts : 
 heat travels in a manner quite different through solids 
 and fluids. Every separate substance has its own 
 density, gravity, cohesion, elasticity, its relations to 
 heat, to electricity, to magnetism ; besides all its 
 chemical affinities, which form an endless throng of 
 laws, connecting every one substance in creation with 
 every other, and different for each pair anyhow taken. 
 Nothing can look less like a world formed of atoms 
 operating upon each other according to some universal 
 and inevitable laws, than this does : if such a system 
 of things be conceivable, it cannot be our system. We 
 have, it may be, fifty simple substances in the world ; 
 
 RECAPITULATIOX. 
 
 125 
 
 each of which is invested with properties, both of 
 chemical and mechanical action, altogether different 
 from those of any other substance. Every portion, 
 however minute, of any of these, possesses all the 
 properties of the substance. Of each of these sub- 
 stances there is a certain unalterable quantity in the 
 universe; when combined, their compounds exliibit 
 new chemical affinities, new mechanical laws. Who 
 gave these different laws to the different substances ? 
 who proportioned the quantity of each ? But suppose 
 this done. Suppose these substances in existence ; in 
 contact; in due proportion to each other. Is this a 
 world, or at least our world ? No more thaa the mine 
 and the forest are the ship of war or the factory. These 
 elements, with their constitution perfect, and their 
 proportion suitable, are still a mere chaos. They must 
 be put in their places. They must not be where their 
 own properties would place them. They must be made 
 to assume a particular arrangement, or we can have no 
 regular and permanent course of nature. This arrange- 
 ment must again have additional peculiarities, or we 
 can have no organic portion of the world. Tlie millions 
 of millions of particles which the world contains, must 
 be finished up in as complete a manner, and fitted into 
 their places with as much nicety, as the most dehcate 
 wheel or spring in a piece of human machin(3ry. ^Ylmt 
 are the habits of thought to which it can appear 
 possible that this .could take place without design, 
 intention, intelligence, purpose, knowledge ? 
 
 In what has just been said, we have spoken only of 
 the constitution of the inorganic part of the universe. 
 
 1! 
 
126 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 The mechanism, if we may so call it, of vegetable and 
 animal life, is so far beyond our comprehension, that 
 though some of the same observations might be applied 
 to it, we do not dwell upon the subject. We know that 
 in these processes also, the mechanical and chemical 
 properties of matter are necessary, but we know too 
 that these alone will not account for the phenomena 
 of life. There is something more than these. The 
 lowest stage of vitality and irritability appears to carry 
 us beyond mechanism, beyond chemical affinity. All 
 that has been said with regard to the exactness of the 
 adjustments, the combination of various means, the 
 tendency to continuance, to preservation, is applicable 
 with additional force to the organic creation, so far 
 as we can perceive the means employed. These, how- 
 ever, belong to a different province of the subject, and 
 must be left to other hands. 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 — <♦ — 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 When we . turn our attention to the larger portions 
 of the universe, the sun, the planets, and the earth as 
 one of them, the moon and other satelHtes, the fixed 
 stars, and other heavenly bodies ; — the views which we 
 obtain concerning their mutual relations, arrangement 
 and movements, are called, as we have akeady stated, 
 cosmical views. These views will, we conceive, afford 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 127 
 
 us indications of the wisdom and care of the Power 
 by which the objects which we thus consider, were 
 created and are preseiTed : and we shall now proceed 
 to point out some circumstances in Avhich these 
 attributes may be traced. 
 
 It has been observed by writers on Natural Theology, 
 that the arguments for the being and perfections of the 
 Creator, drawn from cosmical considerations, labour 
 under some disadvantages when compared with tlie 
 arguments founded on those provisions and adapta- 
 tions which more immediately affect the well being of 
 organised creatures. The structure of the solar system 
 has far less analogy with such machinery as we can 
 construct and comprehend, than we find in the structure 
 of the bodies of animals, or even in the causes of the 
 weather. Moreover, we do not see the immediate bearing 
 of cosmical arrangements on that end which we most 
 readily acknowledge to be useful and desii^able, the sup- 
 port and comfort of sentient natures : so that, from both 
 causes, the impression of benevolent design in this case 
 is less striking and pointed than that wliich results 
 from the examination of some other parts of nature. 
 
 But in considering the universe, according to the 
 view we have taken, as a collection of la2vs, astronomy, 
 the science which teaches us the laws of the motions 
 of the heavenly bodies, possesses some advantages, 
 among the subjects from which we may seek to learn 
 the character of the government of the W(jrld. For 
 our knowledge of the laws of the motions of the planets 
 and satellites is far more comj^lete and ex^uit, far more 
 thorough and satisfactory, than the loiowledge which 
 
128 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 we possess in anj^ otlier department of Natural Philo- 
 sophy. Our acquaintance with the laws of the solar 
 system is such, that we can calculate the precise place 
 and motion of most of its parts at any period, past or 
 future, however remote ; and we can refer the changes 
 wliich take place in these circumstances to their proxi- 
 mate cause, the attraction of one mass of matter to 
 another, acting between all the parts of the universe. 
 
 If, therefore, we trace indications of the Divine care, 
 either in the form of the laws wliich prevail among the 
 heavenly bodies, or in the arbitrary quantities which 
 such laws involve ; (according to the distinction 
 explained in the former part of this work ;) we may 
 expect that our examples of such care, though they may 
 be less numerous and obvious, will be more precise 
 than they can be in other subjects, where the laws of 
 facts are imperfectly known, and their causes entirely 
 hid. We trust that this will be found to be the case with 
 regard to some of the examples which we shall adduce. 
 
 Chap. I. — The Structure of the Solar System. 
 
 In the cosmical considerations which we have to 
 offer, we shall suppose the general truths concerning 
 the structure of the solar system and of the universe, 
 which have been established by astronomers and 
 mathematicians, to be known to the reader. It is not 
 necessary to go into much detail on this subject. The 
 five planets known to the ancients. Mercury, Venus, 
 Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, revolve round the sun, at dif- 
 ferent distances, in orbits nearly circular, and nearly 
 
 SOLAR SYSTEM. 
 
 129 
 
 in one plane. Between Venus and Mars, our Earth, 
 herself one of the planets, revolves in like manner. 
 Beyond Saturn, Uranus has been discovered describing 
 an orbit of the same kind ; and between Mars and 
 Jupiter, four smaller bodies perform their revolutions 
 in orbits somewhat less regular than the rest. These 
 planets are aU nearly globular, and all revolve upon 
 their axes. Some of them are accompanied by satel- 
 lites, or attendant bodies wliich revolve about them ; 
 and these bodies also have their orbits nearly circular, 
 and nearly in the same plane as the others. Saturn's 
 ring is a solitary example, so far as we know, of such 
 an appendage to a planet. 
 
 These circular motions of the planets round the 
 sun, and of the satellites round their primary planets, 
 are all kept going by the attraction of the respective 
 central bodies, wliich restrains the con'esponding 
 revolving bodies from flying off. It is pe-rhaps not 
 very easy to make this operation clear to common 
 apprehension. We cannot illustrate it by a comparison 
 with any machine of human contrivance and fabrica- 
 tion : in such machines everything goes on by contact 
 and impulse : pressure, and force of all kinds, is 
 exercised and transferred from one part to auother, by 
 means of a material connection : by rods, ropes, fluids, 
 gases. In the macliinery of the universe, there is, so 
 far as we know, no material connexion between the 
 parts which act on each other. In the solar system no 
 part touches or drives another : all the bodies affect 
 each other at a distance, as the magnet siffects tlie 
 needle. The production and regulation of such effects. 
 
130 
 
 COSMICAL AKRANGEMENTS. 
 
 if attempted by our mechanicians, would require great 
 skill and nicety of adjustment; but our artists have 
 not executed any examples of this sort of machinery, 
 by reference to which we can illustrate the arrange- 
 ments of the solar system. 
 
 Perhaps the following comparison may serve to 
 explain the kind of adjustments of which we shall 
 have to speak. If there be a wide shallow romid basin 
 of smooth marble, and if we take a smooth ball, as a 
 billiard ball or a marble pellet, and throw it along the 
 surface of the inside of the basin, the ball will gene- 
 rally make many revolutions round the inside of the 
 bowl, gradually tending to the bottom in its motion. 
 The gradual diminution of the motion, and consequent 
 tendency of the ball to the bottom of the bowl, arises 
 from the friction ; and in order to make the motion 
 correspond to that which takes place through the 
 action of a central force, we must suppose tliis friction 
 to be got rid of. In that case, the ball, once set 
 a-going, would run round the basin for ever, describing 
 either a circle, or various kinds of ovals, according to 
 the way in which it was originally throTvai ; whether 
 quickly or slowly, and whether more or less obliquely 
 along the surface. 
 
 Such a motion would be capable of the same kind of 
 variety, and the same sort of adjustments, as the motion 
 of a body revolving about a larger one by means of a 
 central force. Perhaps the reader may understand 
 what kind of adjustments these are, by supposing such 
 a bowl and ball to be used for a game of skill. If the 
 object of the players be to throw the pellet along the 
 
 CIRCULAR ORBITS. 
 
 131 
 
 surface of the basin, so that after describing its curved 
 path it shall pass through a small hole in a barrier at 
 some distance from the starting point, it will easily be 
 understood that some nicety in the regulation of the 
 force and direction with which the ball is thrown will 
 be necessary for success. In order to obtain a better 
 image of the solar system, we must suppose the basin 
 to be very large and the peUet very small. And it wiU 
 easily be understood that as many pellets as there are 
 planets might run round the bowl at the same time 
 with different velocities. Such a contrivance might 
 form a planetarium in which the mimic planets would 
 be regulated by the laws of motion as the real planets 
 are ; instead of being carried by wires and wheels, as 
 IS done in such machines of the common construction : 
 and in this planetarium the tendency of the planets to 
 the sun is replaced by the tendency of the representative 
 pellets to run down the slope of the bowl. We shall 
 refer again to this basin, thus representing the solar 
 system with its loose planetary balls. 
 
 Chap. II.— The Circular Orbits of the Planets round the Sun. 
 
 The orbit which the earth describes round the sun 
 is very nearly a circle : the sun is about one-thirtieth 
 nearer to us in winter than in summer. This nearly 
 cii^cular form of the orbit, on a little consideration, will 
 appear to be a remarkable circumstance. 
 
 Supposing the attraction of a planet towards the sun 
 to exist, if the planet were put in motion in any part of 
 the solar system, it would describe about the sun an 
 
 K 2 . 
 
132 
 
 COSMIC AL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 orbit of some kind ; it might be a long oval, or a shorter 
 oval, or an exact circle. But if we suppose the result 
 left to chance, the chances are infinitely against the 
 last-mentioned case. There is but one circle ; there 
 are an infinite number of ovals. Any original impulse 
 would give some oval, but only one particular impulse, 
 determinate in velocity and direction, will give a circle. 
 If we suppose the planet to be originally 'projected, it 
 must be projected perpendicularly to its distance from 
 the sun, and with a certain precise velocity, in order 
 that the motion may be circular. 
 
 In the basin to which we have compared the solar 
 system, the adjustment requisite to produce circular 
 motion would require us to project our pellet so that 
 after running half round the surface it should touch a 
 point exactly at an equal distance from the centre, on 
 the other side, passing neither too high nor too low. 
 And the pellet, it may be observed, should be in size 
 only one ten-thousandth part of the distance from the 
 centre, to make the dimensions correspond with the 
 case of the earth's orbit. If the mark were set up 
 and hit we should hardly attribute the result to 
 chance. 
 
 The earth's orbit, however, is not exactly a circle. 
 The mark is not precisely a single point, but is a space 
 of the breadth of one-tliirtieth of the distance from the 
 centre. Still this is much too near an agreement with 
 the circle to be considered as the work of chance. The 
 chances were great against the ball passing so nearly 
 at the same distance, for there were twenty-nine equal 
 spaces through which it might have gone, between the 
 
 CIRCULAR ORBITS. 
 
 133 
 
 mark and the centre, and an indefinite number outside 
 the mark. 
 
 But it is not the earth's orbit alone whi<;h is nearly 
 a circle : the rest of tlie planets also approach very 
 nearly to that form : Yenus more nearly still than the 
 earth : Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus have a difference 
 of about one-tenth, between tlieir gTeatest and least 
 distances fi-om the sun : Mars has his extreme distances 
 in the proportion of five to six nearly ; and Mercury in 
 the proportion of two to three. The last-mentioned 
 case is a considerable deviation, and two of the small 
 planets which lie between Mars and Jupiter, namely 
 Juno and Pallas, exhibit an inequality somewhat greater 
 still ; but the smallness of these bodies, and other 
 circumstances, make it probable that there may be 
 particular causes for the exception in theii* case. The 
 orbits of the satellites of the earth, of Jupiter, and of 
 Saturn, are also nearly circular. 
 
 Taking the solar system altogether, the regularity of 
 its structure is very remarkable. The diagram which 
 represents the orbits of the planets might have consisted 
 of a number of ovals, narrow and wide in all degrees, 
 intersecting and interfering with each other in all 
 directions. The diagram does consist, as all who 
 have opened a book of astronomy know, of a set of 
 figures which appear at first sight concentric circles, 
 and which are very nearly so ; nowhere approaching 
 to any crossing or interfering, except in the case of the 
 small planets, already noticed as irregular. No one, 
 looking at this common diagram, can believe that tlie 
 orbits were made to be so nearly circles by chance ; 
 
134 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 any mor^ than he can believe that a target, such as 
 archers are accustomed to shoot at, was painted in 
 concentric circles by the accidental dashes of a brush 
 in the hands of a blind man. 
 
 The regularity, then, of the solar system excludes 
 the notion of accident in the arrangement of the orbits 
 of the planets. There must have been an express 
 adjustment to produce this cii'cular character of the 
 orbits. The velocity and direction of the motion of 
 each planet must have been subject to some original 
 regulation; or, as it is often expressed, the proje'ctile 
 force must have been accommodated to the centripetal 
 force. This once done, the motion of each planet, 
 taken by itself, would go on for ever still retaining its 
 circular chai-acter, by the laws of motion. 
 
 If some original cause adjusted the orbits of the 
 planets to their circular form and regular arrangement, 
 we can hardly avoid including in our conception of this 
 cause, the intention and will of a Creating Power. We 
 shall consider this argument more fully in a succeeding 
 chapter ; only obserring here, that the presiding Intel- 
 ligence Avhich has selected and combined the properties 
 of the organic creation, so that they correspond so 
 remarkably with the arbitrary quantities of the system 
 of the universe, may readily be conceived also to have 
 selected the arbitrary velocity and direction of each 
 planet's motion, so that the adjustment should produce 
 a close approximation to a circular motion. 
 
 We have argued here only from the regularity of the 
 solar system ; from the selection of the single symme- 
 trical case and the rejection of aU the unsymmetrical 
 
 CIRCULAR ORBITS. 
 
 135 
 
 cases. But this subject may be considered in another 
 point of view. The system thus selected Is not only 
 regular and symmetrical, but also it is, so far as we can 
 judge, the only one which would answer the pm-pose of 
 the earth, perhaps of the other planets, as the seat of 
 animal and vegetable life. If the earth's orbit were 
 more excentric, as it is called, if for instance the 
 greatest and least distances were as three to one, the 
 inequality of heat at two seasons of the yeju* would be 
 destructive to the existing species of living creatures. 
 A circular, or nearly circular, orbit, is the only case in 
 which we can have a coui'se of seasons such as we have 
 at present, the only case in which the climates of the 
 northejii and southern hemispheres are nearly the 
 same ; and what is more clearly important, the only 
 case in which the character of the seasons would not 
 vary from century to century. For if the excentricity 
 of the earth's orbit were considerable, the difference of 
 heat at different seasons, arising from tlie different 
 distances of the sun, would be combined with the 
 difference, now the only considerable one, which 
 depends on the position of the earth's axis. And as 
 by the motion of the perihelion, or place of the nearest 
 distance of the earth to the sun, this nearest distance 
 would fall in different ages at different i)arts of the 
 year, the whole distribution of heat through the year 
 would thus be gradually subverted. The summer and 
 winter of the tropical yeai*, as we have it now, being 
 combined with the heat and cold of the anomalistic 
 year, a j)eriod of diff'erent length, the difference of the 
 two seasons might sometimes be neutralised altogether, 
 
136 
 
 COSMICAL AllRANGEMENTS. 
 
 and at other times exaggerated by the accumulation of 
 the inequahties, so as to be intolerable. 
 
 The circular form of the orbit therefore, which, from 
 its unique character, appears to be chosen with some 
 design, from its effects on the seasons, appears to be 
 chosen with this design, so apparent in other parts of 
 creation, of securing the welfare of organic life, by a 
 steadfast and regular order of the solar influence upon 
 the planet. 
 
 Chap. III.— The Stahility of the Solar System. 
 
 Theee is a consequence resulting from the actual 
 structure of the solar system, whicli has been brought 
 to light by the investigations of mathematicians con- 
 cerning the cause and laws of its motions, and which 
 has an important bearing on our argument. It appears 
 that the arrangement which at present obtains is 
 precisely that which is necessary to secm-e tlie stahility 
 of the system. This point we must endeavour to 
 explain. 
 
 If each planet were to revolve round the sun without 
 being affected by the other planets, there would be a 
 certain degree of regularity in its motion ; and this 
 regularity would continue for ever. But it appears, 
 by the discovery of the law of universal gravitation' 
 that the planets do not execute their movements in 
 tliis insulated and independent manner. Each of 
 them is acted on by the attraction of all the rest. The 
 earth is constantly drawn by Venus, by Mars, by 
 Jupiter, bodies of various magnitudes, perpetuaUy 
 
 STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 
 
 137 
 
 changing their distances and positions with regard to 
 the earth ; the earth in return is perpetually drawing 
 these bodies. What, in the course of time, will be the 
 result of this mutual attraction ? 
 
 All the planets are very small compared with the 
 smi, and therefore the derangement which they pro- 
 duce in the motion of one of their number will be very 
 small in the course of one revolution. But this gives 
 us no security that the derangement may not become 
 very large in the course of many revolutions. The 
 cause acts perpetually, and it has the whole extent of 
 time to work in. Is it not then easily conceivable that 
 in the lapse of ages the derangements of the motions 
 of the planets may accumulate, the orbits may change 
 their form, their mutual distances may be much in- 
 creased or much diminished ? Is it not possible that 
 these changes may go on without limit, and end in tlie 
 complete subversion and ruin of the system ? 
 
 If, for instance, the result of tliis mutual gravitation 
 should be to increase considerably the excentricity 
 of the earth's orbit, that is to make it a longer and 
 longer oval ; or to make the moon approach perpetually 
 nearer and nearer the earth every revolution ; it is easy 
 to see that in the one case our year would change its 
 character, as we have noticed in the last section ; in 
 the other, our satellite might finally fall to the earth, 
 which must of course bring about a dreadful catas- 
 trophe. If the positions of the planetaiy orbits, with 
 respect to that of the earth, were to change much, the 
 planets might sometimes come very nesar us, and 
 thus exaggerate the effects of their attraction beyond 
 
 
138 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 I 
 
 calculable Hmits. Under such cii-cumstances, we mi.ht 
 have years of unequal length, and seasons of capri- 
 cious temperatm-e, planets and moons of portentous 
 size and aspect glaring and disappearing at uncertain 
 intervals ; tides like deluges, sweeping over whole 
 continents ; and, perhaps, the collision of two of 
 the planets, and the consequent destruction of aU 
 organisation on both of them. 
 
 Nor is it, on a common examination of the history 
 of the solar system, at all cleai- that there is no ten- 
 dency to indefinite derangement. The fact really is 
 that changes are taking place in tlie motions of the 
 heavenly bodies, which have gone on progi^essively from 
 the first dawn of science. The excentricity of the 
 earth s orbit has been diminishing from the earUest 
 observations to our times. The moon has been moving 
 quicker and quicker from the time of the first recorded 
 echpses, and is now in advance, by about four times 
 her own breadth, of what her place would have been if it 
 had not been affected by this acceleration. The obli- 
 quity of tlie ecliptic also is in a state of diuunution, 
 and IS now about two-fifths of a degree less than it 
 was in the tune of Aristotle. WiU these changes go on 
 without hmit or reaction ? If so, we tend by nrtural 
 causes to a termination of the present system of 
 things : if not, by what adjustment or combination 
 axe we secm^ed from such a tendency ? Is the system 
 
 drtend?? ^°' '^^** '■' *^^ ^'"^^itio^ «» '^^^<^i^ stability 
 
 To answer these questions is far from easy. The 
 mechamcal problem which they involve is no less than 
 
 STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 
 
 139 
 
 this ; — Having given the directions and velocities with 
 which about thirty bodies are mo\dng at one time, to 
 find theii- places and motions after any number of ages; 
 each of the bodies, all the while, attracting all the others, 
 and being attracted by them all. 
 
 It may readily be imagined that this is a problem of 
 extreme complexity, when it is considered that every 
 new configuration or arrangement of the bodies mil 
 give rise to a new amount of action on each ; and every 
 new action to a new configuration. Accordingly, the 
 mathematical investigation of such questions as the 
 above was too difficult to be attempted in the earlier 
 periods of the progress of Physical Astronomy. Newton 
 did not undertake to demonstrate either the stability 
 or the instability of the system. The decision of this 
 point required a greater number of preparatory steps 
 and simplifications, and such progress in th(j invention 
 and improvement of mathematical methods, as occupied 
 the best mathematicians of Europe for the greater 
 part of last century. But, towards the end of that 
 time, it was shown by Lagrange and Laplace that the 
 arrangements of the solar system ai-e stable : that in 
 the long run the orbits and motions remain unchanged; 
 and that the changes in the orbits, which take place in 
 shorter periods, never transgress certain ver^^ moderate 
 limits. Each orbit undergoes deviations o]i this side 
 and on that of its average state ; but these deviations 
 are never very great, and it finally recovers from them, 
 so that the average is preserved. The planets produce 
 perpetual perturbations in each other's mc»tions, but 
 these perturbations are not indefinitely progTessive, 
 
H 
 
 140 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 they are periodical : tliey reach a maximum value and 
 then duninish. The periods which this restoration 
 reqmres are, for the most part, enormous; not less 
 than thousands, and, in some instances, millions of 
 years ; and hence it is, that some of these apparent 
 derangements have heen going on in the same direction 
 smce the heginning of the history of the world. But 
 the restoration is in the sequel as complete as the 
 derangement ; and in the mean time the disturbance 
 never attains a sufficient amount seriously to alter the 
 adaptations of the system.* 
 
 The same examination of the subject by whicli this 
 is proved points out also the conditions on which this 
 stability depends. "I have succeeded in demon- 
 stratmg," says Laplace, '' that whatever be the masses 
 of the planets, in consequence of the fact that they aU 
 move in the same direction, in orbits of small excen- 
 tricity, and slightly inclined to each other — their 
 secular inequahties are periodical and included witliin 
 narrow limits ; so that the planetary system will only 
 oscHlate about a mean state, and will never deviate 
 from it except by a very small quantity. The eUipses 
 of the planets have been, and always will be, nearly 
 circular. The ecliptic wHl never coincide with the 
 equator, and the entire extent of the variation in its 
 inclination cannot exceed tlu^ee degrees." 
 
 There exists, therefore, it appears, in the solar 
 system, a provision for the permanent regularity of its 
 motions ; and this provision is found in the fact that 
 the orbits of the planets are nearly circular, and nearly 
 
 ♦ Laplace, Expos, du Syst. du Monde, p. 441. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. 
 
 141 
 
 in the same plane, and the motions all in the same 
 direction, namely, from west to east.* 
 
 Now is it probable that the occurrence of these con- 
 ditions of stability in the disposition of the solar 
 system is the work of chance ? Such a supposition 
 appears to be quite inadmissible. Any one of the 
 orbits might have had any excentricity.t In that of 
 Mercury, where it is much the greatest, it is only one- 
 fifth. How came it to pass that the orbits were not 
 more elongated ? A little more or a little less velocity 
 in their original motions would have made them so. 
 They might have had any inclination to the ecliptic 
 
 In this statement of Laplace, however, one remarkable provision 
 for the stability of the system is not noticed. The planets Mercury 
 and Mars, which have much the largest excentricities among the old 
 planets, are those of which the masses are much the smallest. The 
 mass of Jupiter is more than 2000 times that of either of these planets. 
 If the orbit of Jupiter were as excentric as that of Mercury is, all the 
 security for the stability of the system, which analysis has yet pointed 
 out, would disappear. The earth and the smaller plauets might in 
 that case change their approximately circular orbits ioto very long 
 ellipses, and thus might fall into the sun, or fly off into remote space. 
 
 It is further remarkable, that in the newly-discovered planets, of 
 which the orbits are still more excentric [than that of Mercury, the 
 masses are still smaller, so that the same provision is established in 
 this case also. It does not appear that any mathematician has even 
 attempted to point out a necessary connexion between the mass of a 
 planet and excentricity of its orbit on any hypothesis. May we not 
 then consider this combination of small masses with large excentricities, 
 so important to the purposes of the world, as a mark of provident care 
 in the Creator ? 
 
 t The excenti-icity of a planet's orbit is measured by taking the pro- 
 portion of the difference of the greatest and least distances from the 
 sun, to the sum of the same distances. Jlercury's greatest and least 
 distances are as 2 and 3; his excentricity therefore is one -fifth. 
 
142 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 from no degrees to ninety degrees. Mercury, which 
 again deviates most widely, is inclined 7| degrees, 
 Venus 3f, Saturn 2|, Jupiter li Mars 2. How came 
 it that their motions are thus contained within such a 
 narrow strip of the sky ? One, or any numher of them, 
 might have moved from east to west : none of them 
 does so. And these circumstances, which appear to 
 be, each in particular, requisite for the stability of the 
 system and the smaUness of its disturbances, are all 
 found in combination. Does not this imply both clear 
 purpose and profound skill ? 
 
 It is difficult to convey an adequate notion of the 
 extreme complexity of the task thus executed. A 
 number of bodies, aU attracting each other, are to be 
 projected in such a manner that their revolutions 
 shall be permanent and stable, theii- mutual pertur- 
 bations always small. If we return to the basin with 
 its rolling balls, by which we before represented the 
 solar system, we must complicate with new conditions 
 the trial of skill which we supposed. The problem 
 must now be to project at once seven such balls, all 
 connected by strings which influence their movements, 
 so that each may hit its respective mark. And we 
 niust further suppose that the marks are to be hit 
 after many thousand revolutions of the balls. No one 
 will imagine that this could be done by accident. 
 
 In fact it is allowed by all those who have considered 
 this subject, that such a coincidence of the existing 
 state with the mechanical requisites of permanency 
 cannot be accidental. Laplace has attempted to calcu- 
 late the probabiHty that it is not the result of accident. 
 
 STABILITY OP THE SYSTEM. 
 
 143 
 
 He takes into account, in addition to the motions which 
 we have mentioned, the revolutions of the satellites 
 about theii- primaries, and of the sun and planets about 
 their axes : and he finds that there is a pro])ability, far 
 higher than that which we have for the greater part of 
 undoubted historical events, that these appearances are 
 not the effect of chance. " We ought therefore," he 
 says, " to believe, with at least the same confidence, 
 that a primitive cause has directed the planetaiT 
 motions." 
 
 The solar system is thus, by the confession of all 
 sides, completely different from anything which we 
 might anticipate from the casual operation of its known 
 laws. The laws of motion are no less obeyed to the 
 letter in the most irregular that in the most regular 
 motions ; no less in the varied circuit of the baU which 
 flies round a tennis court, than in the .jroing of a clock; 
 no less in the fantastical jets and leaps which breakers 
 make when they burst in a corner of a rocky shore, 
 than in the steady swell of the open sea. I'he laws of 
 motion alone wiU not produce the regularity which we 
 admii^e in the motions of the heavenly bodies. There 
 must be an original adjustment of the system on which 
 these laws are to act; a selection of the arbitrary 
 quantities which they are to involve ; a primitive cause 
 which shall dispose the elements in due relation to 
 each other; in order that regular recurrence may 
 accompany constant, change; that perpetual motion 
 may be combined with perpetual stabihty ; that derange- 
 ments which go on increasing for thousands or for 
 milHons of years may finally cure themselves ; and that 
 
144 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 the same laws which lead the planets slightly aside 
 from their paths, may narrowly limit their deviations, 
 and bring them back from their almost imperceptible 
 wanderings. 
 
 If a man does not deny that any possible peculiarity 
 in the disposition of the planets with regard to the sun 
 could afford evidence of a controlling and ordering 
 purpose, it seems difficult to imagine how he could 
 look for evidence stronger than that which there actually 
 is. Of all the innumerable possible cases of systems, 
 governed by the existing laws of force and motion, that 
 one is selected which alone produces such a steadfast 
 periodicity, such a constant average of circumstances, 
 as are, so far as we can conceive, necessary conditions 
 for the existence of organic and sentient life. And 
 this selection is so far from being an obvious or easily 
 discovered means to this end, that the most profound 
 and attentive consideration of the properties of space 
 and number, with all the appliances and aids we can 
 obtain, are barely sufficient to enable us to see that the 
 end is thus secm-ed, and that it can be secured in no 
 other way. Surely the obvious impression which arises 
 from this view of the subject is, that the solar system, 
 with its adjustments, is the work of an Intelligence, 
 who perceives, as self-evident, those truths, to which 
 we attain painfully and slowly, and after all imperfectly ; 
 who has employed in every part of creation refined 
 contrivances, which we can only with effort understand; 
 and who, in innumerable instances, exhibits to us 
 what we should look upon as remarkable difficulties 
 remarkably overcome, if it were not that, through the 
 
 THE SUN IN THE CENTRE. 
 
 145 
 
 perfection of the provision, the trace of the difficulty is 
 almost obliterated. 
 
 Chap. IV. — The Sun in the Centre. 
 
 The next circumstance which we shall notice as 
 indicative of design in the arrangement of the material 
 portions of the solar system, is the position of the sun, 
 the source of light and heat, in the centre of the 
 system. This could hardly have occurred by any thing 
 wliich we can call chance. Let it be granted, that the 
 law of gravitation is established, and that we have a 
 large mass, with others much smaller in its comparative 
 vicinity. The small bodies may then move round the 
 larger, but this will do nothing towards maldng it a sun 
 to them. Their motions might take place, the whole 
 system remaining still utterly dark and cold, without 
 day or summer. In order that we may have something 
 more than this blank and dead assemblages of moving 
 clods, the machine must be lighted up and warmed. 
 Some of the advantages of placmg the lighting and 
 warmmg apparatus in the centre are obvious to us. It 
 is in this way only that we could have those regular 
 periodical returns of solar influence, which, as we have 
 seen, are adapted to the constitution of the living 
 creation. And we can easily conceive, that there may 
 be other incongTuities in a system with a travelling 
 sun, of which we can only conjecture the natiu-e. No 
 one probably will doubt that the existing system, with 
 the sun in the centre, is better than any one of a 
 different kind would be. 
 
146 
 
 COSMICAL AllUANGEMENTS. 
 
 Now this lighting and warming by a central sun are 
 something superadded to the mere mechanical arrange- 
 ments of the universe. There is no apparent reason 
 why the largest mass of gravitating matter should 
 diffuse inexhaustible supplies of light and heat in all 
 directions, while the other masses are merely passive 
 with respect to such influences. There is no obvious 
 connexion between mass and luminousness, or tem- 
 perature. No one, probably, will contend that the 
 materials of our system are necessarily luminous or hot. 
 According to the conjectures of astronomers, the heat 
 and light of the sun do not reside in its mass, but in a 
 coating which lies on its surface. If such a coating 
 were fixed there by the force of universal gravitation, 
 how could we avoid liavmg a similar coating on the 
 surface of the eaii;h, and of all the other globes of the 
 system? If hght consists in the vibrations of an ether, 
 which we have mentioned as a probable opinion, why 
 has the sun alone the power of exciting such vibrations ? 
 If light be the emission of material particles, why does 
 the Sim alone emit such particles ? Similar questions 
 may be asked, with regard to heat, whatever be the 
 theory we adopt on that subject. Here then we appear 
 to find marks of contrivance. The sun might become, 
 we will suppose, the centre of the motions of the 
 planets by mere mechanical causes : but what caused 
 the centre of their motions to be also the source of 
 those vivifying influences? Allowing that no inter- 
 position was requisite to regulate the revolutions of the 
 system, yet observe what a peculiar arrangement in 
 other respects was necessaiy, in order that these 
 
 i 
 
 THE SUN IN THE CENTRE. 
 
 147 
 
 revolutions might produce days and seasons ! The 
 machine will move of itseK, we may grant : but who 
 constructed the machine, so that its movements might 
 answer the purposes of life ? How was the candle 
 placed upon the candlestick ? how was the fire deposited 
 on the hearth, so that the comfort and v*'ell-being of 
 the family might be secured ? Did these too fall into 
 their places by the casual operation of gTavity ? and, if 
 not, is there not here a clear evidence of intelligent 
 design, of arrangement with a benevolent end ? 
 
 This argument is urged with great force by Newton 
 himself. In his first letter to Bentley, he allows that 
 matter might form itself into masses by the force of 
 attraction. " x\nd thus," says he, " might the sun and 
 fixed stars be formed, supposing the matter were of a 
 lucid nature. . But how the matter should divide itself 
 into two sorts ; and that part of it which is fit to 
 compose a shining body should fall down into one mass, 
 and make a sun ; and the rest, which is fit to compose 
 an opaque body, should coalesce, not into one great 
 body, like the shining matter, but into many little 
 ones ; or if the sun at first were an opaque body like the 
 planets, or the planets lucid bodies like ihe sun, how 
 he alone should be changed into a shining body, whilst 
 all they continue opaque ; or all they be changed into 
 opaque ones, while he continued unchanged : I do not 
 think explicable by mere natural causes, but am forced 
 to ascribe it to .the counsel and contrivance of a 
 voluntary Agent." 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 THE SATELLITES. 
 
 149 
 
 Chap. V. — The Satellites. 
 
 I. A PERSON of ordinary feelings, who, on a fine 
 moonlight night, sees our satellite pouiing her mild 
 radiance on field and town, path and moor, will 
 prohably not only be disposed to "bless the useful 
 light," but also to believe that it was " ordained " for 
 that purpose ; — that the lesser light was made to rule 
 the night as certainly as the greater hght was made to 
 rule the day. 
 
 Laplace, however, does not assent to this belief. He 
 observes, that "some partisans of final causes have 
 imagined that the moon was given to the earth to aftbrd 
 light during the night:" but he remarks that this 
 cannot be so, for that we are often deprived at the same 
 time of the light of the sun and the moon ; and he 
 points out how the moon might have been placed so as 
 to be always " full." 
 
 That the light of the moon affords, to a certain 
 extent, a supplement to the light of the sun, will 
 hardly be denied. If we take man in a condition in 
 which he uses artificial light scantily only, or not at all, 
 there can be no doubt that the moonlight nights are for 
 him a very important addition to the time of dayhght. 
 And as a small proportion only of the whole number of 
 nights are without some portion of moonlight, the fact 
 that sometimes both luminaries are invisible very little 
 diminishes the value of this advantage, \\liy we have 
 not more moonlight, either in duration or in quantity, 
 is an inquiry which a philosopher could hardly be 
 
 
 1 
 
 tempted to enter upon, by any success which has 
 attended previous speculations of a similar nature. 
 Why should not the moon be ten times as large as 
 she is ? "Why should not the pupil of inan's eye be 
 ten times as large as it is, so as to receive more of the 
 light which does arrive ? We do not con(;eive that our 
 inability to answer the latter question prevents our 
 knowing that the eye was made for seeing : nor does our 
 inability to answer the former, disturb our persuasion 
 that the moon was made to give light upon the earth. 
 
 Laplace suggests that if the moon had been placed 
 at a certain distance beyond the earth, it w^ould have 
 revolved about the sun m the same time as the earth 
 does, and would have always presented to us a full 
 moon. For this pm'pose it must have been about four 
 times as far from us as it really is ; and w^ould therefore, 
 other things remaining unchanged, have only been one 
 sixteenth as large to the eye as our pres(int full moon. 
 We shall not dwell on the discussion of tliis suggestion, 
 for the reason just intimated. But we may observe 
 that in such a system as Laplace proposes, it is not 3^et 
 proved, we believe, that the arrangement would be 
 stable, under the influence of the disturbing forces. 
 And we may add that such an arrangement, m wiiich 
 the motion of one body has a co-ordinate reference to 
 two others, as the motion of the moon on this hypothesis 
 w^ould have to the sun and the eai*th, neither motion 
 being subordinate to the other, is contrary to the 
 whole known analogy of cosmical phenomena, and 
 therefore has no claim to our notice as a subject of 
 discussion. 
 
150 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 } 
 
 II. In turning our consideration to the satellites of 
 the other planets of our system, there is one fact which 
 immediately aiTests our attention; — the number of 
 such attendant bodies appears to increase as we proceed 
 to planets farther and farther from the sun. Such at 
 least is the general rule. Mercury and Venus, the 
 planets nearest the sun, have no such attendants, the 
 earth has one. Mars, indeed, who is still farther 
 removed, has none ; nor have the minor planets, Juno, 
 Vesta, Ceres, Pallas ; so that the rule is only approxi- 
 jnately verified. But Jupiter, who is at five times the 
 earth's distance, has four satellites ; and Saturn, who 
 is again at a distance nearly twice as great, has seven, 
 besides that most extraordinary phenomenon, his ring, 
 which, for purposes of illumination, is equivalent to 
 many thousand satellites. Of Uranus it is difficult to 
 speak, for his great distance renders it almost impos- 
 sible to observe the smaller circumstances of his 
 condition. It does not appear at all probable that 
 he has a ring, like Saturn; but he has at least five 
 satellites which are visible to us, at the enormous 
 distance of 900 millions of miles ; and we beheve that 
 the astronomer will hardly deny that he may possibly 
 have thousands of smaller ones circulating about him. 
 But leaving conjecture, and taking only the ascer- 
 tained cases of Venus, the earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, 
 we conceive that a person of common understanding 
 will be strongly impressed with the persuasion that the 
 satellites are placed in the system with a view to 
 compensate for the diminished hght of the sun at 
 greater distances. The smaller planets, Juno, Vesta, 
 
 STABILITY or THE OCEAN. 
 
 151 
 
 
 Ceres, and Pallas, differ from the rest m so many 
 ways, and suggest so many conjectures of reasons for 
 such differences, that we should almost expect to find 
 them exceptions to such a rule. Mars is a more 
 obvious exception. Some persons might conjecture 
 from this case, that the arrangement itse^K, like other 
 useful arrangements, has been brought about by some 
 wider law which we have not yet detected. But whether 
 or not we entertain such a guess, (it can be nothmg 
 more,) we see in other parts of creation so many 
 examples of apparent exceptions to rules, which are 
 afterwards found to be capable of explanation, or to 
 be provided for by particular contrivances, that no one, 
 familiar with such contemplations, will, by one anomaly, 
 be driven from the i)ersuasion that the end which the 
 arrangements of the satellites seem suited to answer is 
 really one of the ends of their creation. 
 
 Chap. VI. — The Stability of the Ocean. 
 
 What is meant by the stability of the ocean may 
 perhaps be explained by means of the following illus- 
 tration. If we suppose the whole globe of the earth 
 to be composed of water, a si^here of cork immersed m 
 any part of it would come to the surface of the water, 
 except it were placed exactly at the centr(3 of the earth; 
 and even if it were so placed, the slightest displacement 
 of the cork sphere would end in its rising and floating. 
 This would be the case whatever were tlie size of the 
 cork sphere, and even if it were so large as to leave 
 comparatively little room for the water ; and the result 
 
152 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 STABILITY OF THE OCEAN. 
 
 153 
 
 would be nearly the same, if the cork sphere, when in 
 its central position, had on its surface prominences 
 which projected above the surface of the water. Now 
 this brings us to the case in which we have a globe 
 resembling our present earth, composed like it of water 
 and of a solid centre, with islands and continents, but 
 having these sohd parts all made of cork. And it 
 appears by the preceding reasoning, that in this case, 
 if there were to be any disturbance either of the soHd 
 or fluid parts, the solid parts would rise from the 
 centre of the watery sphere as far as they could : that 
 is, all the water would run to one side and leave the 
 land on the other. Such an ocean woiUd be in unstable 
 equihbrium. 
 
 Now a question naturally occurs, is the equilibrium 
 of our present ocean of this unstable kind, or is it 
 stable? The sea, after its most violent agitations, 
 appears to return to its former state of repose ; but 
 may not some extraordinary cause produce in it some 
 derangement which may go on increasing till the waters 
 all rush one way, and thus drown the highest moun- 
 tains ? And if we are safe from this danger, what are 
 the conditions by which we are so secured ? 
 
 The iUustration which we have employed obviously 
 suggests the answer to this question ; namely, that the 
 equilibrium is unstable, so long as the solid parts are 
 of such a kind as to float in the fluid parts ; and of 
 course we should expect that the equihbrium will be 
 stable whenever the contraiy is the case, that is, when 
 the solid parts of the earth are of greater specific 
 gravity than the sea. A more systematic mathematical 
 
 calculation has conducted Laplace to a d(3monstration 
 of this result. 
 
 The mean specific gravity of the eaiih appears to be 
 about ^fc times that of water, so that tlie condition of 
 the stability of the ocean is abundantly fulfilled. And 
 the provision by which this stability is secured was put 
 in force through the action of those causes, whatever 
 they were, which made the densit}^ of the solid materials 
 and central parts of the earth greater than the density 
 of the incumbent fluid. 
 
 When we consider, how^ever, the manner in which 
 the wisdom of the Creator, even in those cases in which 
 his care is most apparent, as in the structure of 
 animals, works by means of intermediate; causes and 
 general laws, we shall not be ready to reject all belief 
 of an end in such a case as this, merely because the 
 means are mechanical agencies. Lapla(!e says, " In 
 vii'tue of gravity, the most dense of the strata of the 
 earth are those nearest to the centre ; and thus the 
 mean density exceeds that of the w^aters which cover 
 it ; w^hicli suflices to secure the stability of the equi- 
 librium of the seas, and to put a bridle upon the fury 
 of the waves." This statement, if exact, would not 
 prove that He who subjected the materials of the earth 
 to the action of gravity did not intend to restrain the 
 rage of the waters : but the statement is not true in 
 fact. The lower strata, so far as man has yet examined, 
 are very far from bemg constantly, or even generally, 
 heavier than the superincumbent ones. And certainly 
 solidification by no means implies a greater density 
 than fluidity : the density of Jupiter is one fourth, that 
 
1 
 
 154 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 ' 
 
 of Satiirn less than one seventh, of that of the earth. 
 If an ocean of water were poured into the cavities upon 
 the surface of Saturn, its equilibrium would not be 
 stable. It would leave its bed on one side of the 
 globe ; and tlie planet would finally be composed of 
 one hemisphere of water and one of land. If the 
 earth had an ocean of a liuid six times as heavy as 
 water, (quicksilver is thirteen times as heavy,) we 
 should have, in like manner, a dry and a fluid hemi- 
 sphere. Our inland rivers would probably never be 
 able to reach the shores, but would be dried up on their 
 way, like those wliich run in torrid deserts ; perhaps 
 the evaporation from the ocean would never reach the 
 mland mountains, and we should have no rivers at aU. 
 Without attempting to imagine the details of such a 
 condition, it is easy to see, that to secme the existence 
 of a different one is an end which is in harmony with 
 aU that we see of the preserving care displayed in the 
 rest of creation.* 
 
 Chap. Yll,—The Nebular Hypothesis. 
 
 We have referred to Laplace, as a profound mathe- 
 matician, who has strongly expressed the opinion, that 
 
 * The stability of the axis of rotation about which the earth revolves 
 has sometimes been adduced as an instance of preservative care. The 
 stability, however, would follow necessarily, if the earth, or its super- 
 ficial parts, were originally fluid ; and that they were so is an opinion 
 widely received, both among astronomers and geologists. The original 
 fluidity of the earth is probably a circumstance depending upon the 
 general scheme of creation; and cannot with propriety be considered 
 with reference to one particulai- result. We shall therefore omit any 
 turther consideration of this argument. 
 
 NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 155 
 
 the arrangement by which the stability of the solar 
 system is secured is not the result of chance ; that 
 " a primitive cause has directed the planetary motions." 
 This author, however, having arrived, as we have 
 done, at tliis conviction, does not draw from it the 
 conclusion which has appeared to us so irresistible, 
 that " the admirable arrangement of the solar system 
 cannot but be the work of an intelligent, and most 
 powerful Being." He quotes these expressions, which 
 are those of Newton, and points at them as instances 
 where that gi'eat philosopher had deviati^d from the 
 method of true philosophy. He himself proposes an 
 hypothesis concerning the nature of the primiti^'e cause 
 of which he conceives the existence to l)e thus pro- 
 bable : and this hypothesis, on account of the facts 
 which it attempts to combine, the view of the universe 
 which it presents, and the eminence of the person by 
 whom it is x^ropounded, deserves our notice. 
 
 I. Laplace conjectures that in the original condition 
 of the solar system, the sun revolved upon his axis, 
 surrounded by an atmosphere which, in virtue of an 
 excessive heat, extended far beyond the orbits of all 
 the planets, the x)lanets as yet having no existence. 
 The heat gradually diminished, and as the solar 
 atmosphere contracted by cooling, the rapidity of its 
 rotation increased by the laws of rotatory motion, and 
 an exterior zone of vapour was detached from the rest, 
 the central attraction being no longer abk- to overcome 
 the increased centrifugal force. This zone of vapour 
 might in some cases retain its form, as we see it in 
 Saturn's ring; but more usually the ring of vapour 
 
156 
 
 COSMICAL AEIIANGEMENTS. 
 
 NEBtTLAU HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 157 
 
 would break into several masses, and these would 
 generally coalesce into one mass, wMch would revolve 
 about the sun. Such portions of the solar atmosphere 
 abandoned successively at different distances, would 
 torm "planets in the state of vapour." These masses 
 ot vapour, it appears from mechanical considerations 
 would have each its rotatory motion, and as the coolin^r 
 of the vapour still went on, would each produce a 
 planet, which might have satelUtes and rings, formed 
 from the planet in the same manner as tlie planets 
 were formed from the atmosphere of the sun. 
 
 It may easily be conceived that all the primary 
 motions of a system so produced would be nearly 
 circular, neai-ly in the plane of the original equator of 
 «ie solar rotation, and in the dh-ection of that rotation 
 Keasons are offered also to show that the motions of 
 the sateUites thus produced and tlie motions of rotation 
 of the planets must be in the same dii'ection. And 
 thus It is held that the hypothesis accounts for the 
 most remarkable circumstances in tlie structm-e of the 
 solar system : namely, tlie motions of the planets in 
 the same direction, and almost in the same plane ; the 
 motions of the satellites in the same direction as 
 those of tlie planets ; the motions of rotation of these 
 different bodies stiU in the same direction as the other 
 motions, and in planes not much different ; the smaU 
 excentricity of the orbits of the planets, upon which 
 condition, along with some of the preceding ones, the 
 stabihty of the system depends ; and the position of 
 the source of hght and heat in the centre of the 
 system. 
 
 
 It is not necessary for the purpose, nor s;uitable to 
 the plan of the present treatise, to examine, on physical 
 grounds, the probability of the above hypothesis. It 
 is proposed by its author, with great diffidence, as a 
 conjecture only. We might, therefore, very reasonably 
 put off all discussion of the bearings of this opinion 
 upon our views of the government of the world, till the 
 opinion itself should have assumed a less indistinct 
 and precarious form. It can be no charge against oiu' 
 doctrines, that there is a difficulty in reconciling with 
 them arbitrar}^ guesses and half-formed theories. We 
 shall, however, make a few observations upon this 
 nebular hypothesis, as it may be termed. 
 
 II. If we gi'ant, for a moment, the hypotliesis, it by 
 no means proves that the solar system was formed 
 without the intervention of intelligence and design. 
 It only transfers our view of the skill exei^cised, and 
 the means employed, to another pai-t of the work. 
 For, how came the sun and its atmosphere to have 
 such materials, such motions, such a constitution, that 
 these consequences followed from their primordial 
 condition ? How came the parent vapour thus to be 
 capable of coherence, separation, contraction, solidifi- 
 cation ? How came the laws of its motion, attraction, 
 repulsion, condensation, to be so fixed, as to lead to a 
 beautiful and harmonious system in the end? How 
 came it to be neither too fluid nor too tenacious, to 
 contract neither too quickly nor too slowly, for the 
 successive formation of the several planetjuy bodies ? 
 How came that substance, which at one time was a 
 luminous vapour, to be, at a subsequent period, solids 
 
ggjjgjggj*^ 
 
 158 
 
 COSMICAL AURANGEMENTS. 
 
 NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 159 
 
 and fluids of many various kinds ? What but design 
 and intelligence prepared and tempered tins previously 
 existmg element, so that it should by its natural 
 changes produce such an orderly system? 
 
 And if in this way we suppose a planet to be pro- 
 duced, what sort of a body would it be ?-somethinj. 
 It may be presumed, resembhng a large meteoric stone! 
 How comes this mass to be covered mth motion and 
 orgamsation, with life and happiness ? What primitive 
 cause stocked it with plants and animals, and produced 
 aU the wonderful and subtle contrivances which we 
 find m theu^ structure, aU the wide and profound 
 mutual dependences which we trace in their economy? 
 Was man, with his thought and feehng, his powers 
 and hopes, Ms wiU and conscience, also produced as 
 an ultimate result of the condensation of the solar 
 atmosphere ? Except we aUow a prior purpose and 
 inteUigence presiding over this material "primitive 
 cause " how irreconcilable is it with the evidence which 
 crowds in upon us on every side ! 
 
 III. In the next place we may observe concerning tliis 
 hypothesis, that it carries us back to the beginning of 
 the present system of things; but that it is impossible 
 for om- reason to stop at the point thus presented 
 to It. The sun, the earth, the planets, the moons, 
 were brought into theii^ present order out of a previous 
 state, and, as is supposed in the theoiy, by the natural 
 operation of laws. But how came that previous state 
 to exist? We are compelled to suppose that it, in 
 like manner, was educed from a still prior state of 
 tlnngs; and this, again, must have been the result of a 
 
 condition prior still. Nor is it possible for us to find, 
 in the tenets of the nebular hypothesis, any resting- 
 place or satisfaction for the mind. The same; reasoning 
 faculty, which seeks for the origin of the present 
 system of things, and is capable of assenting to, or 
 dissenting from, the hypothesis propounded by Laplace 
 as an answer to this inquiry, is necessarily led to seek, 
 in the same manner, for the origin of any previous 
 system of things, out of wliich the present may appear 
 to have grown : and must pursue this train of inquiries 
 unremittingly, so long as tlie answer which it receives 
 describes a mere assemblage of matter and motion; 
 since it would be to contradict the laws of matter and 
 the nature of motion, to suppose such an assemblage 
 to be the first condition. 
 
 The reflection just stated, may be illustrated by the 
 further consideration of the nebular hypothesis. This 
 opinion refers us, for the origin of the solai* system, to 
 a sun surrounded with an atmosphere of enormously 
 elevated temperature, revolving and cooling. But as 
 we ascend to a still earlier period, what state of things 
 are we to suppose ? — a still higher temperature, a still 
 more diffused atmosphere. Laplace conceives that, in 
 its primitive state, the sun consisted in a diffused 
 luminosity, so as to resemble those nebulae among the 
 fixed stars, which are seen by the aid of the telescope, 
 and wliich exliibit a nucleus, more or less brilliant, 
 surrounded by a cloudy brightness. " This anterior 
 state was itself preceded by other states, in which the 
 nebulous matter was more and more diffused, the 
 nucleus being less and less luminous. We arrive," 
 
I 
 
 160 
 
 COSMTCAL AREAN CEMENTS. 
 
 Laplace says, "in this manner, at a nebulosity so 
 diffuse, that its existence could scarcely be suspected." 
 
 " Such is," he adds, " in fact, the first state of the 
 nebulae which Herschel carefully observed by means of 
 his powerful telescopes. He traced the progress of con- 
 densation, not indeed on one nebula, for this progress 
 can only become j)erceptible to us in the course of 
 centuries ; but in the assemblage of nebulse ; much in 
 the same manner as in a large forest we may trace the 
 growth of trees among the examples of different ages 
 which stand side by side. He saw, in the first place, 
 the nebulous matter dispersed in patches, in . the 
 different parts of the sky. He saw in some of these 
 patches this matter feebly condensed round one or 
 more faint nuclei. In other nebul£e, these nuclei were 
 brighter in proportion to the surrounding nebulosity ; 
 when by a further condensation the atmosphere of 
 each nucleus becomes separate from the others, the 
 result is multiple nebulous stars, formed by brilliant 
 nuclei very near each other, and each surrounded by an 
 atmosphere : sometimes the nebulous matter condens- 
 ing in a uniform manner has produced nebulous 
 systems which are called 2}lanctary, Finally, a still 
 greater degree of condensation transforms all these 
 nebulous systems into stars. The nebulse, classed 
 according to this philosophical view, indicate with 
 extreme probability their future transformation into 
 stars, and the anterior nebulous condition of the stars 
 which now exist." 
 
 It appears then that the highest point to which this 
 series of conjectures can conduct us, is " an extremely 
 
 NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 161 
 
 diffused nebulosity," attended, we may suppose, by a 
 far higher degree of heat, than that wliich, at a later 
 period of the hypothetical process, keeps all the mate- 
 rials of our earth and planets in a state of vapour. 
 Now, is it not impossible to avoid asking, ^^hence was 
 this light, this heat, this diffusion ? How came the 
 laws which such a state implies, to be already in 
 existence? Whether light and heat produce their 
 effects by means of fluid vehicles or otherwise, they 
 have complex and varied laws which indicate the exis- 
 tence of some subtle machinery for their action. When 
 and how was this machinery constructed ? Whence, 
 too, that enormous expansive power which the nebulous 
 matter is sui}posed to possess? And if, as would 
 seem to be supposed in this doctrine, all the material 
 ingredients of the earth existed in this diffuse nebu- 
 losity, either in the state of vapour, or in some state of 
 still greater expansion, whence were they and their 
 properties? how came there to be of each simple 
 substance wliich now enters into the composition of 
 the universe, just so much and no more ? Do we not, 
 far more than ever, require an origin of this origin ? 
 an explanation of this explanation ? Wliatever may 
 be the merits of the opinion as a physical hypothesis, 
 with which we do not here meddle, can it for a moment 
 prevent our looldng beyond the hypothesis, to a First 
 Cause, an Intelligent Author, an origin proceeding 
 from free volition, not from material necessity ? 
 
 But agaiii : let us ascend to the highest point of the 
 hypothetical progression : let us suppose th<^ nebulosity 
 diffused throughout aU space, so that its course of 
 
ssssss. 
 
 i, 
 
 162 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 163 
 
 running into patches is not yet begun. How are we 
 to suppose it distributed? Is it equably diffused in 
 every paii;? clearly not; for if it were, what should 
 cause it to gather into masses, so various in size, form, 
 and arrangement ? The separation of the nebulous 
 matter into distinct nebulae implies necessarily some 
 original inequality of distribution ; some determining 
 circumstances in its primitive condition. Whence 
 were these circumstances ? this inequality ? we are 
 still compelled to seek some ulterior agency and power. 
 
 Why must the primeval condition be one of change 
 at all ? Wliy should not the nebulous matter be 
 equably diffused throughout space, and continue for 
 ever in its state of equable diffusion, as it must do, 
 from the absence of all cause to determine the time and 
 manner of its separation ? why should this nebulous 
 matter gi-ow cooler and cooler ? why should it not 
 retain for ever the same degree of heat, whatever heat 
 be ? If heat be a fluid ; if to cool be to part with this 
 fluid, as many philosophers suppose, what becomes of 
 the fluid heat of the nebulous matter, as the matter 
 cools doAvn ? Into what unoccupied region does it find 
 its way? 
 
 Innumerable questions of the same kind might be 
 asked, and the conclusion to be drawn is, that every 
 new physical theory which we include in our view of 
 the universe, involves us in new difficulties and per- 
 plexities, if we try to erect it into an ultimate and final 
 account of the existence and arrangement of the world 
 in which we live. With the evidence of such theories, 
 considered as scientific generalisations of ascertained 
 
 facts, with their claims to a place in our natural philo- 
 sophy, we have here nothing to do. But if they are 
 put forwards as a disclosure of the ultimate cause of 
 that which occurs, and as superseding the necessity of 
 looking furtlier or higher ; if they claim a place in oui* 
 Natural Theology, as well as our Natural Philosophy ; 
 we conceive that theii' pretensions will not bear a 
 moment's examination. 
 
 Leaving then to other persons and to futiue ages to 
 decide upon the scientific merits of the nebular hypo- 
 thesis, we conceive that the final fate of this opinion 
 cannot, in sound reason, affect at all the viev/ which we 
 have been endeavouring to illustrate ; — the ^ iew of the 
 universe as the work of a wise and good Creator. Let 
 it be supposed that the point to which this hypothesis 
 leads us, is the ultimate point of physical science : that 
 the farthest glimpse we can obtain of the material 
 universe by our natural faculties, shows it to us occupied 
 by a boundless abyss of luminous matter : slill we ask, 
 how space came to be thus occupied ? how matter came 
 to be thus luminous? If we establish by physical 
 proofs, that the first fact which can be tracked in the 
 history of the w orld, is that " there was liight ; " w^e 
 shall still be led, even by our natural reason, to suppose 
 that before this could occur, " God said, let there be 
 light." 
 
164 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 165 
 
 Chap. VIII. — The Existence of a Re&Uting Medium in the 
 
 Solar System. 
 
 The question of a plenum and a vacuum was fonneiiy 
 much debated among those who speculated concerning 
 the constitution of the universe ; that is, they disputed 
 whether the celestial and terrestrial spaces are abso- 
 lutely full, each portion being occupied by some matter 
 or other; or whether there are, between and among 
 the material parts of the world, empty spaces free from 
 all matter, however rare. This question was often 
 treated by means of abstract conceptions and a priori 
 reasonings; and was sometimes considered as one in 
 which the result of the struggle between rival systems of 
 philosophy, the Cartesian and Newtonian for instance, 
 was involved. It was conceived by some that the 
 Newtonian doctrine of the motions of the heavenly 
 bodies, according to mechanical laws, requii-ed that the 
 space in which they moved should be, absolutely and 
 metaphysicallj^ speaking, a vacuum. 
 
 This, however, is not necessary to the truth of the 
 Newtonian doctrines, and does not appear to have 
 been intended to be asserted by Newton himself. 
 Undoubtedly, according to his theory, the motions of 
 the heavenly bodies were calculated on the supposition 
 that they do move in a space void of any resisting 
 fluid ; and the comparison of the places so calculated 
 with the places actually observed (continued for a long 
 course of years, and tried in innumerable cases), did 
 not show any difference which implied the existence 
 
 of a resisting fluid. The Newtonian, therefore, was 
 justified in asserting that either there was no such 
 fluid, or that it was so thin and rarefied, that no 
 phenomenon yet examined by astronomers was capable 
 of betraying its effects. 
 
 This was all that the Newtonian needed or ought to 
 maintain ; for his philosophy, founded altogether upon 
 observation, had nothing to do with abstract possi- 
 bilities and metaphysical necessities. And in the same 
 manner in wliich observation and calculation thus 
 showed that there could be none but a very rare 
 medium pervading the solar system, it was h^ft open to 
 observation and calculation to prove that there was 
 such a medium, if any facts could be discov(?red wliich 
 offered suitable evidence. 
 
 Within the last few years, facts have been observed 
 Avhich show, in the opinion of some of the best mathe- 
 maticians of Em'oi)e, that such a ver}" rare medium 
 does really occupy the spaces in which the planets 
 move ; and it may be proper and interesting to con- 
 sider the bearing of this opinion upon the views and 
 arguments which we have had here to present. 
 
 I. Reasons might be offered, founded on the universal 
 diffusion of light and on other grounds, for belie\ing 
 that the planetary spaces cannot be entirely free from 
 matter of some kind; and wherever matter is, we 
 should expect resistance. But the facts ^viiich have 
 thus led astronomers to the conviction that such a 
 resisting medium really exists, are certain circum- 
 stances occurring in the motion of a bod}' revolving 
 round the sun, which is now usuallv call(?d Enckes 
 
 4iL 
 
 ( r 
 
166 
 
 COSMICAL AllRANGEMENTS. 
 
 comet This body revolves in a very excentric or 
 oblong orbit, its greatest or aphelion distance from the 
 sun, and its nearest or perihelion distance, being in the 
 proportion of more than ten to one. In this respect it 
 agTees with other comets; but its time of revolution 
 about the sun is much less than that of the comets 
 which have excited most notice ; for while they appear 
 only at long intervals of years, the body of which we 
 are now speaking returns to its perihelion every 1208 
 days, or in about three years and one-third. Another 
 observable cii^umstance in this singular body is its 
 extreme apparent tenuity : it appears as a loose inde- 
 finitely formed speck of vapour, tln^ough which the 
 stars are visible with no perceptible diminution of 
 their brightness. This body was first seen by Mechain 
 and Messier, in 1786,* but they obtained only two 
 observations, whereas three, at least, are requisite to 
 determine the path of a heavenly body. Miss Herschel 
 discovered it again in 1795, and it was observed by 
 several European astronomers. In 1805 it was again 
 seen, and again in 1819. Hitherto it was supposed 
 that the four comets thus observed were all difterent ; 
 Encke, however, showed that the observations could 
 only be explained by considering them as returns of 
 the same revolving body; and by doing this, well 
 merited that his name should be associated with the 
 subject of his discovery. The return of this body in 
 1822 was calculated beforehand, and observed in New 
 South Wales, the comet being then in the southern 
 part of the heavens ; but on comparing the calculated 
 
 * Airy on Encke's Comet, p. 1. note. 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 167 
 
 and the observed places, Encke concluded that the 
 observations could not be exactly explained, without 
 supposing a resisting medium. This comet was again 
 generally observed in Europe in 1825 and 1828, and 
 the cii^cumstances of the last appearance were parti- 
 cularly favourable for determinmg the absolute amount 
 of the retardation arising from the medium, which the 
 other observations had left undetermined. 
 
 The effect of this retarding influence is, as might be 
 supposed from what has akeady been said, extremely 
 slight ; and would probably not have been ])erceptible 
 at aU, but for the loose texture, and small (quantity of 
 matter, of the revolving body. It will easily be con- 
 ceived that a body which lias perhaps no more solidity 
 or coherence than a cloud of dust, or a wreath of smoke, 
 will have less force to make its way through a fluid 
 medium, however thin, than a more dense and compact 
 body would have. In atmospheric air much rarefied, 
 a bullet miglit proceed for miles without losing any of 
 its velocity, while such a loose mass as th(» comet is 
 supposed to be, would lose its jDrojectile motion in the 
 space of a few yards. This consideration wiU account 
 for the circumstance, that the existence of such a 
 medium has been detected by observing the motions of 
 Encke's comet, though the motions of the heavenly 
 bodies previously observed showed no trace of such an 
 impediment. 
 
 It will perhaps appear remarkable that a body so 
 light and loose as we have described this comet to be, 
 should revolve about the sun by laws as fixed and 
 certain as those which regulate the motions of those 
 
 (!^ 
 
168 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 great and solid masses, the Earth and JuiDiter. It is, 
 however, certain from observation, that this comet is 
 acted upon by exactly the same force of solar attrac- 
 tion as the other bodies of the system ; and not only 
 so, but that it also experiences the same kind of dis • 
 turbing force from the action of the other planets, which 
 they exercise upon each other. The effect of all these 
 causes has been calculated with great care and labour ; 
 and the result has been an agi-eement with observation 
 sufficiently close to show that these causes really act, 
 but at the same time a residual j>henoinenon (as Sir J. 
 Herschel expresses it) has come to light ; and from 
 this has been collected tlie inference of a resisting 
 medium. 
 
 This medium produces a very small effect upon the 
 motion of the comet, as will easily be supposed from 
 what has been said. By Encke's calculation, it appears 
 that the effect of the resistance, supposing the comet to 
 move in the earth's orbit, would be about l-850th of 
 the sun's force of the body. The effect of such a 
 resistance may appear, at first sight, paradoxical; it 
 would be to make the comet move more slowly, but 
 perform its revolutions more quickly. This, however, 
 will perhaps be understood if it be considered that by 
 moving more slowly the comet will be more rapidly 
 drawn towards the centre, and that in tliis way a 
 revolution will be described by a shorter path than it 
 was before. It appears that in getting round the sun, 
 the comet gains more in tliis way than it loses by the 
 diminution of its velocity. The case is much like that 
 of a stone thrown in the air; the stone moves more 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 169 
 
 slowly than it would do if there were no air ; but yet it 
 comes to the earth sooner than it would do on that 
 supposition. 
 
 It appears that the effect of the resistance of the 
 ethereal medium, from the first discovery of the comet 
 up to the present time, has been to diminisli the time 
 of revolution by about two days ; and the comet is ten 
 days in advance of the place which it would have 
 reached, if there had been no resistance. 
 
 II. The same medium which is tlms sho^vn to produce 
 an effect upon Encke's comet, must also act upon the 
 planets which move through the same spaces. The 
 effect upon the planets, however, must be very much 
 smaller than the effect upon the comet, in consequence 
 of their greater quantity of matter. 
 
 It is not easy to assign any probable value, or even 
 any certain limit, to the effect of the resisting medium 
 upon the planets. We are entirely ignorant of the 
 comparative mass of the comet, and of any of the 
 planets ; and hence, cannot make any calculation, 
 founded on such a comparison. Newton has endea- 
 voured to show how small the resistance of the medium 
 must be, if it exists.* The result of his calculation is, 
 that if we take the density of the medium to be that 
 which our air will have at 200 miles from tlie earth's 
 surface, supposing the law of diminution of density to 
 go on unaltered, and if we suppose Jupiter to move in 
 such a medium, he would in a million vears lose less 
 than a millionth part of his velocity. If a planet, 
 revolving about the sun, were to lose any portion of its 
 
 * Principia, b. iii., prop. x. 
 
170 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 171 
 
 velocity by the effect of resistance, it would be drawn 
 proportionally nearer the sun, the tendency towards 
 the centre being no longer sufficiently counteracted by 
 that centrifugal force which arises from the body's 
 velocity. And if tlie resistance were to continue \o 
 act, the body would be drawn perpetually nearer and 
 nearer to the centre, and would describe its revolutions 
 quicker and quicker, till at last it would reach the 
 central body, and the system would cease to be a 
 system. 
 
 This result is true, however small be the velocit.y 
 lost by resistance ; the only difference being, that when 
 the resistance is small, the time requisite to extinguisli 
 tlie whole motion wiU be proportionaUv longer. In all 
 cases the times which come under our"^ consideration in 
 problems of this kind are enormous to common appre- 
 hension. Thus Encke's comet, according to the results 
 of the observations already made, will lose, in ten revo- 
 lutions, or thirty-three years, less than 1-1 000th of its 
 velocity; and if this law were to continue, tlie velocity 
 would not be reduced to one-half its present value in 
 less than seven thousand revolutions, or twenty-three 
 thousand years. If Jupiter were to lose one-milHonth 
 of his velocity in a miUion years (which, as has been 
 seen, is far more than can be considered in any way 
 probable), he would require seventy millions of years to 
 ose 1-lOOOth of the velocity; and a period seven 
 hundred times as long to reduce the velocity to one- 
 half. These are periods of time which quite over- 
 whelm the imagination ; and it is not pretended that 
 the calculations axe made with any pretensions to 
 
 accuracy. But at the same time it is beyond doubt, 
 that though the intervals of time thus assigned to these 
 changes are highly vague and uncertain, the changes 
 themselves must, sooner or later, take place, in con- 
 sequence of the existence of the resisting medium. 
 Since there is such a retarding force perpetually acting, 
 however slight it be, it must in the end destroy all the . 
 celestial motions. It may be millions of millions of 
 years before the earth's retardation may perceptibly 
 affect the apparent motion of the sun ; but still the day 
 will come (if the same Providence which formed tlie 
 system, should permit it to continue so long) when this 
 cause will entirely change the length of our year and 
 tlie course of our seasons, and finally stop the earth's 
 motion round the sun altogther. The smaUness of tlie 
 resistance, however small we choose to suppose it, does 
 not allow us to escape this certainty. There is a re- 
 sisting medium; and, therefore, the movements of the 
 solar system cannot go on for ever. The moment 
 such a fluid is ascertainea to exist, the eternity of the 
 movements of the planets becomes as impossible as a 
 perpetual motion on the earth. 
 
 * III. The vast -periods which are brought under our 
 consideration in tracing the effects of the resisting 
 medium, harmonise with all that we leani of the con- 
 stitution of the universe from other somxes. Millions, 
 and millions of millions of years are expressions that 
 at first sight appear fitted only to overwhelm and 
 confound all our powers of thought : and such numbers 
 are no doubt beyond the limits of anything wliich we 
 can distinctly conceive. But our powers of conception 
 
sg& 
 
 172 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 are suited rather to the wants and uses of common life, 
 than to a complete survey of the universe. It is in no 
 way unlikely that the whole duration of the solar system 
 should be a period immeasm-ably gi-eat in our eyes, 
 though demonstrably finite. Such enormous numbers 
 have been brought under our notice by all the advances 
 we have made in our knowledge of natm-e. The 
 smallness of the objects detected by the microscope 
 and of their parts ;— the multitude of the stars which 
 the best telescopes of modern times have discovered in 
 the sky ;— the duration assigned to the globe of the 
 earth by geological investigation;— aU these results 
 requii-e for their probable expression, numbers, which, 
 so far as we see, are on the same gigantic scale as the 
 number of years in which the solar system will become 
 entirely deranged. Such calculations depend in some 
 degi-ee on our relation to the vast aggi-egate of the 
 works of our Creator ; and no person who is accus- 
 tomed to meditate on these subjects will be surprised 
 that the numbers which such an occasion requires 
 should oppress our comprehension. No one who has 
 dwelt on the thought of a universal Creator and Pre- 
 server, will be surprised to find the conviction foreeTl 
 upon the mind of every new train of speculation, that 
 viewed in reference to Him, our space is a point, om^ 
 time a moment, our millions a handful, our permanence 
 a quick decay. 
 
 Our knowledge of the vast periods, both geological 
 aiid astronomical, of which we have spoken, is most 
 slight. It is, in fact, little more than that such periods 
 exist ; that the sm-face of the earth has, at wide intervals 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 173 
 
 of time, undergone gi-eat changes in the disposition 
 of land and water, and in the forms of animal 
 life; and that the motions of the heavenly bodies 
 round the sun are affected, though with inconceivable 
 slowness, by a force which must end by deranging them 
 altogether. It would, therefore, be rash to endeavour 
 to establish any analogy between the periods thus dis- 
 closed ; but we may observe that they agree in this, 
 that they reduce aU tilings to the general rule oi finite 
 duration. As all the geological states of which we find 
 evidence in the present state of the earth have had 
 theii" termination, so also the astronomical conditions, 
 imder which the revolutions of the earth itself proceed, 
 involve the necessity of a future cessation of these 
 revolutions. 
 
 The contemplative person may well be struck by 
 this universal law of the creation. We are in the habit 
 sometimes of contrasting the transient destiny of man 
 with the i)ermanence of the forests, the mountains, the 
 ocean, — with the unwearied cii'cuit of the sun. But 
 this contrast is a delusion of our own imagination : the 
 difference is after all but one of degree. The forest tree 
 Endures for its centuries and then decays; the moiintauis 
 crumble and change, and perhaps subside in some 
 convulsion of nature ; the sea retires, and the shore 
 ceases to resound with the " everlasting " voice of the 
 ocean : such reflections have already crowded upon the 
 mind of the geologist ; and it now appears that the 
 courses of the heavens themselves are not exempt from 
 the universal law of decay ; that not only the rocks and 
 the mountains, but the sun and the moon have the 
 
 A 
 
ii 
 
 II 
 
 174 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 sentence "to end" stamped upon their foreheads. 
 They enjoy no privilege beyond man except a longer 
 respite. The ephemeron perishes in an hour; man 
 endures for his threescore years and ten ; an empire, a 
 nation, numbers its centuries, it may be its thousands 
 of years ; the continents and islands wliich its dominion 
 includes, have perhaps their date, as those which pre- 
 ceded them have had; and the very revolutions of the 
 sky by which centuries are numbered wiU at last 
 languish and stand still. 
 
 To dwell on the moral and religious reflections sug- 
 gested by this train of thought is not to our present 
 purpose; but we may observe that it introduces a 
 homogeneity, so to speak, into the government of the 
 universe. Perpetual change, perpetual progression, 
 increase and diminution, appear to be the rules of the 
 material world, and to prevail without exception. The 
 smaller portions of matter wliich we have near us, and 
 the larger, which appear as luminaiies at a vast dis- 
 tance, different as they are in our mode of conceiving 
 them, obey the same laws of motion ; and these laws 
 produce the same results : in both cases motion is 
 perpetuaUy destroyed, except it be repaired by some 
 living power ; in botli cases the relative rest of the 
 parts of a material system is the conclusion to wliich 
 its motion tends. 
 
 IV. It may, perhaps, appear to some, that tliis 
 acknowledgment of the tendency of the system to 
 derangement through the action of a resisting medium 
 is mconsistent with the argument which we have drawn, 
 in a previous chapter, from the provisions for its 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 175 
 
 stability. In reality, however, the two views are in 
 perfect agreement, so far as our purpose is concerned. 
 The main point which we had to urge, in the consi- 
 deration of the stability of the system, was, not that it 
 is constructed to last for ever, but that while it lasts, 
 the deviations from its mean condition are very small. 
 It is this property which fits the world for its uses. 
 To maintain either the past or the future eternity of 
 the world, does not appear consistent with physical 
 principles, as it certainly does not Ml in with the 
 convictions of the religious man, in whatever way 
 obtained. We conceive that this state of things has 
 had a beginning ; we conceive that it will have an end. 
 But, in the mean time, we find it fitted, by a number of 
 remarkable arrangements, to be the habitation of living 
 creatures. The conditions which secure the stability, 
 and tlie smallness of the perturbations of the system, 
 are among these provisions. If the excentiicity of the 
 orbit of Venus, or of Jupiter, were much g:reater than 
 it is, not only might some of the planets, at the close 
 of ages, fall into the sun or fly oft* into infinite space, 
 but also, in the intermediate time, the earth's orbit 
 might become much more excentric ; the course of the 
 seasons and the average of temperature might vary from 
 what they now are, so as to injure or destroy the whole 
 organic creation. By certain original arrangements 
 these destructive oscillations are prevented. So long 
 as the bodies continue to revolve, their orbits will not 
 be much different from what they now are. And this 
 result is not affected by the action of the resisting 
 medium. Such a medium cannot increase the small 
 
176 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 177 
 
 excentricities of the orbits. The range of the periodical 
 oscillations of heat and cold will not be extended by 
 the mechanical effect of the medium, nor would be, 
 even if its density were incomparably gi-eater than it is. 
 The resisting medium, therefore, does not at all comi- 
 teract that which is most important in the provision 
 for the permanency of the solar system. If the stabiHty 
 of the system had not been secured by the adjustments 
 which we described in a former chapter, the course of 
 the seasons might have been disturbed to an injurious 
 or even destructive extent in the coui'se of a few 
 centuries, or even witliin the Hmits of one generation ; 
 by the effect of the resisting medium, the order of 
 nature remains unchanged for a period, compared witli 
 wdiich the known duration of the human race is 
 insignificant. 
 
 But, it may be objected, the effect of the medium 
 must be ultimately to affect the duration of the earth's 
 revolution round the sun, and thus to derange those 
 adaptations which depend on the length of the year. 
 And, without question, if we permit ourselves to look 
 forwards to that inconceivably distant period at which 
 the effect of the medium will become sensible, this 
 must be allowed to be true, as has been already stated. 
 Millions, and probably miUions of millions of years 
 express inadequately the distance of time at which this 
 cause would produce a serious effect. That the 
 machine of the universe is so constructed that it may 
 answer its purposes for such a period, is surely sujfi- 
 cient proof of the skill of its workmanship, and of the 
 reality of its purpose : and those persons, probably, 
 
 who are best convinced that it is the work of a wise and 
 good Creator, will be least disposed to coQsider the 
 system as imperfect, because in its present condition it 
 is not fitted for eternity. 
 
 V. The doctrine of a resisting medium leads us to- 
 wards a point which the Nebular Hypothesis assumes ; 
 — a beginning of the present order of things. There 
 must have been a commencement of the motions now 
 going on in the solar system. Since these motions, 
 when once begun, would be deranged and destroyed in 
 a j)eriod which, however large, is yet finite, it is obvious 
 we cannot carry their origin indefinitely backwards in 
 the range of past duration. There is a period in whicli 
 these revolutions, whenever they had begun, would 
 have brought the revolving bodies into contact with 
 the central mass ; and this period has in our system 
 not yet elapsed. The w^atch is still gomg, and 
 therefore it must have been wound up within a 
 limited time. 
 
 The solar system, at tliis its beginning, must have 
 been arranged and put in motion by some cause. If 
 we suppose this cause to operate by means of the con- 
 fignirations and the properties of previously existing 
 matter, these configurations must have resulted from 
 some still previous cause, these properties must have 
 produced some previous effects. We are thias led to a 
 condition still earlier than the assumed beginning ; — 
 to an origin of the original state of the universe ; and 
 in this manner we are carried perpetually fm'ther and 
 further back, through a labyrinth of mechanical causa- 
 tion, without any possibility of finding anything in 
 
 
i 
 
 178 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 which the mind can acquiesce or rest, till we admit " a 
 First Cause which is not mechanical." 
 
 Thus the argument which was before urged against 
 those in pai-ticular, who put forwards the Nebular 
 Hypothesis in opposition to the admission of an In- 
 telligent Creator, offers itself agam, as cogent in itself, 
 when we adopt the opinion of a resisting medium, for 
 which the physical proofs have been found to be so 
 strong. The argument is indeed forced upon our 
 minds, whatever view we take of the past history of 
 the imiverse. Some have endeavoured to evade its 
 force by maintaining that the world as it now exists 
 has existed from eternity. They assert that the present 
 order of things, or an order of things in some way 
 resembling the present, produced by the same causes, 
 governed by the same laws, has prevailed through an 
 infinite succession of past ages. We shall not dwell 
 upon any objections to this tenet which might be drawn 
 from our own conceptions, or from what may be called 
 metaphysical sources. Nor shall we refer to the various 
 considerations which liistory, geology, and astronomical 
 records supply, and which tend to show, not only that 
 the past duration of the present course of things is 
 finite, but that it is short, compared with such periods 
 as we have had to speak of. But we may observe, that 
 the doctrine of a resisting medium once established, 
 makes this imagination untenable ; compels us to go 
 back to the origin, not only of the present course of 
 the world, not only of the earth, but of the solar system 
 itself; and thus sets us forth upon that path of research 
 into the series of past causation, where we obtain no 
 
 RESISTING MEDIUM. 
 
 179 
 
 answer of whicli the meaning corresporids to om* 
 questions, till we rest in the conclusion of a most 
 provident and most powerful Creating Intelligence. 
 
 It is related of Epicurus that when a boy, reading 
 Avith his preceptor these verses of Hesiod, 
 
 Hrot fi^v TrpuTiTa Xaos yej/er', avrap eTretro 
 Fai' fvpvTfpvos iravrwv cfios a<r4>aAes ai€i 
 
 Eldest of beings. Chaos first arose, 
 
 Thence Earth wide stretched, the steadfast seat of all 
 
 The Immortals, 
 
 tlie yoimg scholar first betrayed his inquisitive genius 
 by asking '' And chaos whence ? " Wlien in his riper 
 years he had persuaded himself that this question was 
 sufficiently answered by saying that chaos arose from 
 the concourse of atoms, it is strange that the same 
 inquisitive spirit did not again suggest tlie question 
 " and atoms whence ? " And it is clear that however 
 often the question "whence?" had been answered, it 
 would still start up as at first. Nor could it suffice as 
 an answer to say, that earth, chaos, atoms, were portions 
 of a series of changes which went back to eternity. 
 The preceptor of Epicui'us informed him, that to be 
 satisfied on the subject of liis inquiry, he must have 
 recourse to the philosophers. If the young" speculator 
 had been told that chaos (if chaos indeed preceded 
 tlie present order) was produced by an Eternal Being, 
 in whom resided purpose and will, he would have re- 
 ceived a suggestion which, duly matured by subsequent 
 
 N 2 
 
f 
 
 -^Slfti-^ ^ ' ■*■ ^^Hr^- 
 
 180 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 contemplation, might have led him to a philosophy far 
 more satisfactory than the material scheme can ever 
 be, to one who looks, either abroad into the universe, 
 or within into his own bosom. 
 
 Chap. IX. — Mecltanical Laws. 
 
 In the preceding observations we have supposed the 
 laws, by which different kinds of matter act and are 
 acted upon, to be already in existence ; and have 
 endeavoured to point out evidences of design and 
 adaptation, displayed in the selection and arrangement 
 of these materials of the universe. These materials 
 are, it has appeared, supplied in such measures and 
 disposed in such forms, that by means of their proj^er- 
 ties and laws the business of the world goes on 
 harmoniously and beneficially. But a further question 
 occurs : how came matter to have such properties and 
 laws ? Are these also to be considered as things of 
 selection and institution ? And if so, can we trace 
 the reasons why the laws were established in their 
 present form ; why the properties which matter actually 
 possesses were established and bestowed upon it ? We 
 have already attempted, in a previous part of this work, 
 to point out some of the advantages which are secured 
 by the existing laws of heat, light, and moisture : can 
 we, in the same manner, point out the benefits which 
 arise from the present constitution of those laws of 
 matter which are mainly concerned in the production 
 of cosmical phenomena ? 
 
 It will readily be perceived that the discussion of this 
 
 "I 
 
 MECHANICAL LAWS. 
 
 181 
 
 point must necessarily requii-e some effort of absti^act 
 thought. The laws and properties of wlii(;h we have 
 here to speak — the laws of motion and the universal 
 properties of matter — are so closely interwoven with 
 our conceptions of the external world, that we have 
 great difficulty in conceiving them not to exist, or to 
 exist other than they are. When we press or lift a 
 stone, we can hardly imagine that it could, by possi- 
 bility, do otherwise than resist our effort by its hardness 
 and by its heaviness, qualities so familiar to us : when 
 we tln-ow it, it seems inevitable that its motion should 
 depend on the impulse we give, just as we find that it 
 invariably does. 
 
 Nor is it easy to say how far it is really possible to 
 suppose the fundamental attributes of matter to be 
 different from what they are. If we, in our thoughts, 
 attempt to divest matter of its powers of resisting and 
 moving, it ceases to be matter, according to our con- 
 ceptions, and we can no longer reason upon it with any 
 distinctness. And yet it is certain that we can conceive 
 the laws of hardness and weight and motion to be quite 
 different from what they are, and can point out some 
 of the consequences which would result from such 
 difference. The properties of matter, even the most 
 fundamental and universal ones, do not obtain by any 
 absolute necessity, resembling that which belongs to 
 the properties of geometry. A line touching a circle, 
 is necessarily perpendicular to a hue drawn to the 
 centre through the point touched ; for it may be 
 shown that the contrary involves a contradi ction : but 
 there is no contradiction in supposing that a body's 
 
182 
 
 COSMIC A L ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 MECHANICAIi LAWS. 
 
 183 
 
 motion should naturally diminish, or that its weight 
 should increase in removing further from the earth's 
 centre. 
 
 Thus the properties of matter and the laws of motion 
 are what we find them, not by virtue of any internal 
 necessity which we can understand. The study of such 
 laws and properties may therefore disclose to us the 
 character of that external agency by which we conceive 
 them to have been determined to be what they are ; 
 and this must be the same agency by which all other 
 parts of the constitution of the universe were appointed 
 and ordered. 
 
 But we can hardly expect, with regard to such 
 subjects, that we shall be able to obtain any complete 
 or adequate view of the reasons why these general 
 laws are so selected, and so established. Tliese laws 
 are the universal basis of all operations which go on, 
 at any moment, in every part of space, witli regard to 
 every particle of matter, organic and inorganic. All 
 other laws and properties must have a reference to 
 these, and must be influenced by them ; both such as 
 men have already discovered, and the far greater 
 number which remain still unknown. The general 
 economy and mutual relations of all parts of the 
 universe must be subordinate to the laws of motion 
 and matter of which we here speak. We can easily 
 suppose that the various processes of nature, and the 
 dependencies of various creatures, are affected in the 
 most comprehensive manner by these laws; — are 
 simplified by their simplicity, made consistent by their 
 universality; rendered regular by their symmetry. 
 
 We can easily l^suppose that in this way there may be 
 the most profound and admirable reasons for the exist- 
 ence of the present universal properties of matter, 
 which we cannot apprehend in consequence of the 
 limited nature of our knowledge, and of our faculties. 
 For, though our knowledge on certain subjects, and to 
 a certain extent is positive and clear, compared with 
 the whole extent of the universe, the wholes aggregate 
 of things and relations and connexions which exist, 
 it is most narrow and partial, most shallow and super- 
 ficial. We cannot suppose, therefore, that the reasons 
 which we discover for the present form of the laws of 
 nature go nearly to the full extent, or to the bottom of 
 the reasons, which a more complete and profound 
 insight would enable us to perceive. To do justice to 
 such reasons, would require nothing less than a perfect 
 acquaintance with the wliole constitution of every part 
 of creation ; a knowledge which man has not, and, so 
 far as we can conceive, never can have. 
 
 We are certain, therefore, that our views, ivith regard 
 to this part of our subject, must be imperfect and 
 limited. Yet still man has some knowledge with 
 regard to various portions of nature ; and with regard 
 to those most general and comparatively simple facts 
 to which we now refer, his knowledge is more compre- 
 hensive, and goes deeper than it does in any other 
 province. We conceive, therefore, that we shall not be 
 engaged in any rash or presumptuous attempt, if we 
 endeavour to point out some of the advantages which 
 are secured by the present constitution of some of the 
 general mechanical laws of nature ; and to suggest the 
 
:;*te*f*fi. 
 
 184 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION, 
 
 185 
 
 lit 
 
 
 persuasion of that purpose and wise design, which the 
 selection of such laws will thus appear to imply. 
 
 Chap. 'S^.—The Law of Gravitation. 
 
 We shall proceed to make a few observations on the 
 Law of Gravit}^ in virtue of which the motions of 
 planets about the sun, and of satellites about their 
 planets take place; and by which also are x)roduced 
 the fall downwards of all bodies within our reach, and 
 the pressure which they exert upon theii^ supports 
 when at rest. The identification of the latter forces 
 with the former, and the discovery of the single law by 
 which these forces are every where regulated, was the 
 great discovery of Newton : and we wish to make it 
 appear that tliis law is estabUshed by an intelligent and 
 comprehensive selection. 
 
 The law of the sun's attraction upon the planets is, 
 that this attraction varies inversely as the square of 
 the distance ; that is, it decreases as that square in- 
 creases. If we take three points or planets of the solar 
 system, the distances of which from the sun are in the 
 proportion, 1, 2, 3 ; the attractive force which the sun 
 at these distances exercises, is as 1, l-4th, and l-9th 
 respectively. In the smaller variations of distance 
 which occur in the eUiptical motion of one planet, the 
 variations of the force follow the same law. Moreover, 
 not only does the sun attract the planets, but they 
 attract each other according to the same law ; the ten- 
 dency to the earth which makes bodies heavy, is one of 
 the effects of this law : and all these effects of the 
 
 attractions of large masses may be tracied to the 
 attractions of the particles of which they are composed; 
 so that the final generalisation, including all the deri- 
 vative laws, is, that every particle of matter in the 
 universe attracts every other, according to the law of 
 the inverse square of the distance. 
 
 Such is the law of universal gravitation. Now, the 
 question is, why do either the attractions of masses, or 
 those of their component particles, follow this law of 
 the inverse square of the distance rather than any 
 other ? When the distance becomes 1, 2, and 3, why 
 should not the force also become 1, 2, and 3 ?— or if it 
 must be weaker at points more remote from the attract- 
 ing body, why should it not be 1, a half, a third ? or 1, 
 l-8th, l-27th ? Such laws could easily be expressed 
 mathematically, and their consequences calculated. 
 Can any reason be assigned why the law which we find 
 in operation must obtam ? Can any be assigned why 
 it should obtain ? 
 
 The answer to this is, that no reason, at all satisfac- 
 tory, can be given why such a law must, of necessity, 
 be what it is; but that very strong reasons can be 
 pointed out why, for the beauty and advantage of the 
 system, the present one is better than others. We will 
 point out some of these reasons. 
 
 I. In the first place, the system could noi have sub- 
 sisted, if the force had followed a direct instead of an 
 inverse law, with respect to the distance : that is, if it 
 had increased when the distance increased. It has been 
 sometimes said, that " all direct laws of force ai-e ex- 
 cluded on account of the danger from perturbing 
 
186 
 
 COSMIC AL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 187 
 
 forces ; " * that if the planets had pulled at this earth, 
 the harder the further off they were, they would have 
 dragged it entirely out of its course. This is not an 
 exact statement of what would happen : if the force 
 were to be simply in the du^ect ratio of the distance, 
 any number of planets might revolve in the most 
 regular and orderly manner. Theii- mutual effects, 
 which we may call perturbations if we please, would be 
 considerable ; but these pertm-bations would be so com- 
 bined with the unperturbed motion, as to produce a new 
 motion not less regular than the other. This curious 
 result would follow, that every body in the system would 
 describe, or seem to describe, about every other, an exact 
 elliptical orbit ; and that the times of the revolution of 
 every body in its orbit would be all equal. This is 
 proved by Newton, in the 64th proposition of the 
 Principia. There would be nothing to prevent all the 
 planets, on this supposition, from moving round the 
 sun in orbits exactly circular, or nearly circular, accord- 
 ing to the mode in which they were set in motion. 
 
 But though the perturbations of the system would 
 not make this law inadmissible, there are other circum- 
 stances which would do so. Under this law, the gravity 
 of bodies at the earth's surface would cease to exist. 
 Nothing would fall or weigh downwards. The greater 
 action of the distant sun and planets would exactly 
 neutrahse the gravity of the earth : a ball thrown from 
 the hand, however gently, would immediately become a 
 satellite of the earth, and would for the future accom- 
 pany it in its course, revolving about it in tlie space of 
 
 ♦ Paley. 
 
 one year. All terrestrial things would float about with 
 no principle of coherence ot stabiUty : they would obey 
 the general law of the system, but would acknowledge 
 no particular relation to the earth. We can hai'dly 
 pretend to judge of the abstract possibility of such a 
 system of things ; but it is clear that it could not exist 
 without an utter subversion of all that we can conceive 
 of the economy and structure of the world which we 
 inhabit. 
 
 With any other direct law of force, we should in 
 like manner lose gravity, without gaining the theoretical 
 regularity of the planetary motions which we have 
 described in the case just considered. 
 
 II. Among inverse laws of the distance, (tliat is, those 
 according to which the force diminishes as the distance 
 from the origin of force increases,) all which diminish 
 the central force faster tlian the cube of the distance 
 increases are inadmissible, because they are incom- 
 patible with the permanent revolution of a planet. 
 Under such laws it would follow, that a planet would 
 describe a spiral line about the sun, and would either 
 approach nearer and nearer to liim perpetually, or per- 
 petually go fm-ther and further oft' : nearly as a stone 
 at the end of a string, when the string is whirled 
 round, and is allowed to wrap round the hand, or to 
 unwrap from it, approaches to or recedes from the 
 hand. 
 
 If we endeavour to compare tlie law of the inverse 
 square of the distance, which really regulates the cen- 
 tral force, with otlier laws, not obviously inadmissible, 
 as for instance, the inverse simple ratio of the distance, 
 
 rfl 
 
f 
 
 188 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 189 
 
 a considerable quantity of calculation is found to be 
 necessary in order to trace the results, and especially 
 the perturbations in the two cases. The perturbations, 
 in the supposed case, have not been calculated ; such 
 a calculation being a process so long and laborious 
 that it is never gone tlu-ough, except for the purpose of 
 comparing the results of theory with those of observa- 
 tion, as we can do with regard to the law of the inverse 
 square. We can only say, therefore, that the stability 
 of the system, and the moderate limits of the perturba- 
 tions, which we know to be secured by the existing 
 law, would not, so far as we know, be obtained by any 
 different law. 
 
 Without going into further examination of the sub- 
 ject, we may observe that there are some circumstances 
 in which the present system has a manifest superiority 
 in simplicity over the condition which would have 
 belonged to it if the force had followed any other law. 
 Thus, with the present law of grantation, the planets 
 revolve, returning perpetuaUy on the same track, very 
 nearly. The earth describes an oval, in consequence 
 of which motion she is nearer to the sun in our winter 
 than in our summer by about one-thirtieth part of the 
 whole distance. And, as the matter now is, the nearest 
 approach to the sun, and the farthest recess from him, 
 occur always at the same points of the orbit. There is 
 indeed a sliglit alteration in these points, arising from 
 disturbing forces, but this is hardly sensible in the 
 course of several ages. Now if the force had followed 
 any other law, we should have had the earth running 
 perpetually on a new ti^ack. The gi^eatest and least 
 
 distances would have occurred at different parts in 
 every successive revolution. The orbit would have 
 perpetually intersected and been interlaced with the 
 path described in former revolutions ; and the simplicity 
 and regularity wliich characterises the present motion 
 would have been quite wanting. 
 
 III. Another peculiar point of simplicity in the present 
 law of mutual attraction is this : that it makes the law 
 of attraction for spherical masses the same as for single 
 particles. If particles attract with forces which are 
 inversely as the square of the distance, splieres com- 
 posed of such particles will exeii a force which follows 
 the same law. In this character the present law is 
 singular, among all possible laws, excepting that of the 
 direct distance which we have abeady discussed. If 
 the law of the gi^avitation of particles had been that of 
 the inverse simple distance, the atti-action of a sphere 
 would have been expressed by a complex series of 
 mathematical expressions, each representing a simple 
 law. It is truly remarkable that the law of the inverse 
 square of the distance, which appears to be selected as 
 that of the masses of the system, and of which the 
 mechanism is, that it arises from the action of the 
 particles of the system, should lead us to the same law 
 for the action of these particles : there is a stiiking 
 prerogative of simplicity in the law thus adopted. 
 
 The law of gravitation actually prevailing in the 
 solar system has thus great and clear advantages over 
 any law widely different from it : and has moreover, in 
 many of its consequences, a simiDlicity which belongs 
 to this precise law alone. It is in many sucli respects 
 
t 
 
 190 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 191 
 
 a unique law : and when we consider that it possesses 
 several properties which are peculiar to it, and several 
 advantages which, so far as we can see, may be peculiar 
 to it, and which are certainty nearly so ; we have some 
 ground, it would appear, to look upon its peculiarities 
 and its advantages as connected. For the reasons 
 mentioned in the last chapter, we can hardly expect to 
 discern fully the way in which the system is benefited 
 by the simpHcity of this law, and by the mathematical 
 elegance of its consequences : but when we see that it 
 has some such beauties, and some manifest benefits, we 
 may easily suppose that our ignorance and limited capa- 
 city alone prevent our perceiving that there are, for the 
 selection of this law of force, reasons of a far more 
 refined and comprehensive kind than those which we 
 can distinctly apprehend. 
 
 IV. But before quitting this subject we may offer a 
 few further observations on the question, whether gravi- 
 tation and the law of gravitation be necessary attributes 
 of matter. We have spoken of the selection of this 
 law ; but is it selected ? Could it have been otherwise ? 
 Is not the force o£ attraction a necessary consequence 
 of the fundamental properties of matter ? 
 
 This is a question which has been much agitated 
 among the followers of Newton. Some have main- 
 tained, as Cotes, that gravity is an inherent property of 
 all matter ; others, with Newton himself, have consi- 
 dered it as an appendage to the essential qualities of 
 matter, and have proposed hypotheses to account for 
 the mode in which its effects are produced. 
 
 The result of all that can be said on the subject 
 
 appears to be this : that no one can demonstrate the 
 possibility of deducing gravity from the acknowledged 
 fundamental properties of matter : and that no philo- 
 sopher asserts, that matter has been fomid to exist, 
 which was destitute of gravity. It is a property which 
 we have no ri^t to call necessary to matter, but every 
 reason to suppose universal. 
 
 If we could show gi-avity to be a necessary conse- 
 quence of those properties which we adopt as essential 
 to our notion of matter, (extension, soHdity, mobility, 
 inertia,) we might then call it also one of the essential 
 properties. But no one probably will assert that this 
 is the case. Its universality is a fact of observation 
 merely. How then came a property, — in its existence 
 so needful for the support of the universe, in its laws 
 so well adapted to the purposes of creation, — how came 
 it to be thus universal ? Its being found everywhere 
 is necessary for its uses ; but this is so far from being 
 a sufficient explanation of its existence, that it is an 
 additional fact to be explained. We have here, then, 
 an agency, most simple in its rule, most comprehensive 
 in its influence, most effectual and admirable in its 
 operation. What evidence could be afforded of design, 
 by laws of mechanical action, which this law thus exist- 
 ing and thus operating does not afford us ? 
 
 V. It is not necessary for our purpose to consider 
 the theories which have been proposed to account for 
 the action of gi-avity. They have proceeded on the 
 plan of reducing this action to the result of pressure or 
 impulse. Even if such theories could be established, 
 they could not much, or at all, affect our Jirgument ; 
 
192 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 193 
 
 nil 
 
 for the aiTangements by which pressure or mq^act 
 could produce the effects Avhich gravity produces, must 
 be at least as clearly results of contrivance, as gravity 
 itself can be. 
 
 In fact, however, none of these attempts can be consi- 
 dered as at all successful. That of Newton is very 
 remarkable : it is found among the Queries in the 
 second edition of his Optics. " To sliow," he says, 
 " that I do not take gi'avity for an essential property of 
 bodies, I have added one question concerning its cause, 
 choosing to propose it by w ay of question, because I am 
 not yet satisfied about it for want of experiments." The 
 hypothesis which he thus suggests is, that there is an 
 elastic medium pervading all space, and increasing in 
 elasticity as w^e proceed from dense bodies outwards : 
 that this " causes the gravity of such dense bodies to 
 each other : every body endeavouring to go from the 
 denser parts of the medium towards the rarer." Of 
 this hypothesis we may venture to say, that it is in the 
 first place quite gratuitous ; we cannot trace in any 
 other phenomena a medium possessing these proper- 
 ties : and in the next place, that the hypothesis contains 
 several suppositions which are more complex than the 
 fact to be explained, and none wliich are less so. Can 
 we, on Newton's principles, conceive an elastic medium 
 otherwise than as a collection of particles, repelling 
 each other ? and is the repulsion of such particles a 
 simpler fact than the attraction of those which gravitate ? 
 And when we suppose that the medium becomes more 
 elastic as we proceed from each attracting body, what 
 cause can we conceive capable of keeping it in such a 
 
 condition, except a repulsive force emanating from the 
 body itself: a supposition at least as much requiring 
 to be accounted for, as the attraction of the body. It 
 does not appear, then, that this hj^Dothesis will bear 
 examination ; although, for our purpose, th(^. argument 
 would be rather strengthened than weakened, if it could 
 be established. 
 
 VI. Another theory of the cause of gravity, wliich at 
 one time excited considerable notice, w as that originally 
 proposed by M. Le Sage, in a memoir entitled, "Lucrece 
 Newtonien," and further illustrated by M. Prevost ; 
 according to which, all space is occupied by cuiTents of 
 matter, moving perpetually in straight lines, in all 
 directions, with a vast velocity, and penetrating all 
 bodies. When two bodies are near each other, they 
 intercept the current wiiich would flow^ in the inter- 
 mediate space if they were not there, and thus receive 
 a tendency towards each other from the pressure of the 
 currents on their farther sides. Without examining 
 further this curious and ingenious hypothesis, w^e may 
 make upon it the same kind of obsei-vations as before ; 
 — that it is perfectly gratuitous, except as a means of 
 explaining the phenomena ; and that, if it were proved, 
 it would still remain to be shown w^hat necessity has 
 caused the existence of these tico kinds of matter ; the 
 first kind being tliat which is commonly called matter, 
 and which alone affects our senses, while it is inert as 
 to any tendency to .motion ; the second kind being 
 something imperceptible to our senses, except by the 
 effects it produces on matter of the former Mnd ; yet 
 exerting an impulse on every material body, permeating 
 
194 
 
 COSMIC AL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 every portion of common matter, flowing with incon- 
 ceivable velocity, in inexhaustible abundance, from 
 every part of the abyss of infinit}^ on one side, to the 
 ojjposite part of the same abyss ; and so constituted 
 that through all eternity it can never bend its path, or 
 return, or tarry in its course. 
 
 If we were to accept this theor}", it would little or 
 nothing diminish our wonder at the structure of the 
 universe. We might well continue to admire the evi- 
 dence of contrivance, if such a machinery should be 
 found to produce all the effects which flow from the 
 law of gravitation. 
 
 VII. The law of the force of gravit}', which we have 
 explained in the beginning of this chapter, namely, 
 that the attraction between all bodies varies inversely 
 as the square of their distance from each other, has 
 often been a subject of discussion, with reference to the 
 reasons why it is so rather than otherwise. The argu- 
 ments for and against the assertion that this is the 
 necessar}' and inevitable law of such a force, were can- 
 vassed with great animation about the middle of the 
 last centuiy. 
 
 Newton and other astronomers had found that the 
 line of the moon's ajmdes (that is, of her greatest and 
 least distances from the earth) moves round to different 
 parts of the heavens with a velocity twice as great as 
 that which the calculation from the law of gravitation 
 seems at first sight to give. According to the theory, 
 it appeared that this line ought to move round once in 
 eighteen years ; according to observation, it moves 
 round once in nine years. This difference, the only 
 
 LAW OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 195 
 
 obvious failm-e of the tlieory of gravitation, embarrassed 
 mathematicians exceedingly. It is true, it was subse- 
 quently discovered that the apparent discrepancy arose 
 from a mistake; the calculation, which is long and 
 laborious, was supposed to have been carried far enough 
 to get close to the truth ; but it appeared afterwards 
 that the residue wliich had been left out as insignificant, 
 produced, by an unexpected turn in the reckoning, an 
 effect as large as that which had been taken for the 
 whole. But this discovery was not made till a later 
 period ; and in the mean time the Liw of tlie inverse 
 square appeared to be at lault. Clairault tried to 
 remedy the defect by supposing that the force of the 
 earth's gravity consisted of a large force varying in- 
 versely as the square of the distance, and a very sinall 
 force varying inversely as the fourth power (the square 
 of the square). By such a supposition, observ^ation and 
 theory could be reconciled ; but on the suggestion of it, 
 Buffbn came forward with the assertion that the force 
 could not vaiy according to any other law than tlie in- 
 verse square. His arguments are rather metaphysical 
 tlian physical or mathematical. Gravity, he urges, is a 
 quahty, an emanation ; and all emanations are inversely 
 as the square of the distance, as light, odours. To this 
 Clairault repHes by asking how we know that hght and 
 odours have their intensity inversely as the square of 
 the distance from their origin : not, he observes, by mea- 
 suring the intensity, but by supposing these efi'ects to be 
 material emanations. But who, he asks, supposes gra- 
 vity to be a material emanation from the attracting body. 
 Buffon again pleads that so many facts i-rove the 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 COSMICAL ARIlANGEME^'TS. 
 
 law of the inverse square, that a single one, which 
 occurs to interfere with this agreement, must be in 
 some manner capable of being explained away. 
 Clairault replies, that the facts do not prove this law 
 to obtain exactly ; that small effects, of the same order 
 as the one under discussion, have been neglected in 
 the supposed proof; and that therefore the law is only 
 known to be true, as far as such an approximation goes, 
 and no farther. 
 
 Buifon then argues, that there can be no such addi- 
 tional fraction of the force, following a different law, as 
 Clairault supposes : for what, he asks, is there to 
 determine the magnitude of the fraction to one amount 
 rather than another ? why should nature select for it 
 any particular magnitude ? To this it is replied, that, 
 whether we can explain the fact or not, nature does 
 select certain magnitudes in preference to others ; that 
 where we ascertain she does this, we are not to deny 
 the fact because we cannot assign the grounds of her 
 preference. What is there, it is asked, to determine 
 the magnitude of the whole force at any fixed distance? 
 We cannot tell ; yet the force is of a certain definite 
 intensity and no other. 
 
 Finally Clairault observes, that we have, in cohesion, 
 capillary attraction, and various other cases, examples 
 of forces varying according to other laws than the in- 
 verse square ; and that therefore this cannot be the 
 only possible law. 
 
 The discrepancy between observation and theory 
 which gave rise to this controversy was removed, as has 
 been already stated, by a more exact calculation : and 
 
 LAW OF GrvAVITATIOX. 
 
 197 
 
 thus, as Laplace observes, in this case the metaphy- 
 sician turned out to be right and the math(;matician to 
 be wrong. But mo^t persons, probably, who are 
 familiar with such trains of speculation, will allow, that 
 Clairault had the best of the argument, and that the 
 attempts to show the law of gravitation to be neces- 
 sarily what it is, are fallacious and unsound. 
 
 VIII. We may observe, however, that the law of 
 gTavitation according to the inverse square of the dis- 
 tance, which thus regulates the motions of the solar 
 system, is not confined to that province of the universe, 
 as has been shown by recent researches. It appears 
 by the observations and calculations of Sir John 
 Herschel, that several of the stars, called double stars, 
 consist of a pair of luminous bodies which revolve 
 about each other in elhpses, in such a manner as to 
 show that the force, by which they are attracted to 
 each other, varies according to the law of the inverse 
 square. We thus learn a remarkable fact concerning 
 bodies which seemed so far removed from us that no 
 effort of our science could reach them ; and we find 
 that the same law of mutual attraction whicli we have 
 before traced to the faiihest bounds of the solar system, 
 prevails also in spaces at a distance compared with 
 which the orbit of Satui'n shrinks into a point. The 
 establishment of such a truth ceiiainly suggests, as 
 highly probable, the prevalence of this law among all 
 the bodies of the universe. And we mav therefore 
 suppose, that the same ordinance which gave to the 
 parts of our system that rule by which they fulfil the 
 purposes of their creation, impressed the same rule on 
 
I 
 
 198 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 THE LAWS OF MOTION. 
 
 199 
 
 the otlier portions of matter wliicli are scattered in the 
 most remote parts of the universe ; and thus gave to 
 their movements the same grounds of simplicity and 
 harmony which we find reason to admire, as^r as we 
 can acquire any knowledge of our own more immediate 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Chap. XI. — TJie Lcncs of Motion, 
 
 We shall now make a few remai'ks on the general 
 Laws of Motion by wliich all mechanical effects take 
 place. Ai-e we to consider these as instituted laws ? 
 And if so, can we point out any of the reasons which 
 we may suppose to have led to the selection of those 
 law^s whicli really exist ? 
 
 The observations formerly made concerning the 
 inevitable narrowness and imperfection of our conclu- 
 sions on such subjects, apply here, even more strongly 
 than in the case of the law of gravitation. We can 
 hardly conceive matter divested of tliese laws ; and we 
 cannot perceive or trace a millionth part of the effects 
 wliich they produce. We cannot, therefore, expect to 
 go far in pointing out the essential advantages of these 
 laws such as they now obtain. 
 
 It would be easy to show that the fundamental laws 
 of motion, in whatever form we state them, possess a 
 very pre-eminent simplicity, compared with almost aU 
 otliers, which w^e might imagine as existing. This 
 simpHcity has indeed produced an effect on men's minds 
 which, though delusive, appears to be very natural; 
 several writers have treated these laws as self-evident, and 
 
 necessarily flowing from the nature of our conceptions. 
 We conceive that this is an erroneous view, and that 
 these laws are known to us to be what they are, by 
 experience only; that the laws of motion might, 
 so far as we can discern, have been any others. 
 They appear therefc)re to be selected for their fitness 
 to answer their purposes; and we may, perhaps, be 
 able to point out some uistances in which this fitness is 
 apparent to us. 
 
 Newton, and many EngHsh philosophers, teach the 
 existence of three separate fundamental laws of motion, 
 while most of tlie eminent mathematicians of France 
 reduce these to tiro, the law of inertia and the law that 
 force is proportional to velocity. As an example of 
 the views which we wisli to illustrate, we may take the 
 law of inertia, wliich is identical with Newton's first 
 Law of Motion. This law asserts, that a body at 
 rest continues at rest, and that a body in motion goes 
 on moving with its velocity and direction unchanged, 
 except so far as it is acted on by extraneous forces.* 
 
 We conceive that this law, simple and universal as 
 it is, cannot be shown to be necessarily true. It might 
 be difticult to discuss this point in general terms with 
 any clearness ; but let us take the only example which 
 
 * If the laws of motion are stated as three, wliich we conceive to be 
 the true view of the subject, the other two, as applied in mechanical 
 reasonings, are the following :— 
 
 Second Law. When a force acts on a body in motion, it produces the 
 same effect as if the same force acted on a body at rest. 
 
 Third Law. When a force of the nature of pressure produces motion, 
 the velocity produced is proportional to the force, other- things being 
 equal. 
 
200 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 THE LAWS OF MOTION. 
 
 201 
 
 I 
 
 we know of a motion absolutely uniform, in conse- 
 quence of the absence of any force to accelerate or 
 retard it ; — this motion is the rotation of the earth on 
 its axis. 
 
 I. It is scarcely possible that discussions on such 
 subjects should not have a repulsive and scholastic 
 aspect, and appear like disputes about words rather than 
 things. For meclianical writers have exercised all 
 their ingenuity so to circumscribe their notions and so 
 to define their terms, that these fundamental truths 
 should be expressed in the simplest manner : the con- 
 sequence of which has been, that they have been made 
 to assume the appearance rather of identical assertions 
 than of general facts of experience. But in order to 
 avoid this inconvenience, as far as may be, we take the 
 first law of motion as exemphfied in a particular case, 
 the rotation of the earth. Of all the motions with 
 which we are acquainted, this alone is invariable. Each 
 day, measm^d by the passages of the stars, is so pre- 
 cisely of the same length, that, according to Laplace's 
 calculations, it is impossible that a difference of one 
 hundredth of a second of time should have obtained 
 between the length of the day in the earliest ages and 
 at the present time. Now why is this ? How is this 
 very remarkable uniformity preserved in this particular 
 phenomenon, while all the other motions of the system 
 are subject to inequalities ? How is it that in the celestial 
 machine no retardation takes place by the lapse of 
 time, as would be the case in any machine which it 
 would be possible for human powers to constinict? 
 The answer is, that in the earth's revolution on her 
 
 I 
 
 axis no cause operates to retard the speed, like the 
 imperfection of materials, the friction of supports, the 
 resistance of the ambient medium ; * impediments 
 which cannot, in any human mechanism, however perfect, 
 be completely annihilated. But here w^e are led to ask 
 again, why should the speed continue the same when 
 not affected by an extraneous cause ? why should it not 
 languish and decay of itself by the mere lapse of time ? 
 That it might do so, involves no contradiction, for it 
 was the common, though erroneous, belief of all mecha- 
 nical speculators, to the time of Galileo. We can 
 conceive velocity to diminish in proceeding from a 
 certain point of time, as easily as we can conceive force 
 to diminish in proceeding from a certain point of space, 
 which in attractive forces really occurs. But, it is 
 sometimes said, the motion (that is the velocitj^) must 
 continue the same from one instant to another, for 
 there is nothing to change it. This a])pears to be 
 taking refuge in words. We may call the velocity, that 
 is the speed of a body, its motion ; but we cannot, by 
 giving it this name, make it a thbuf wliieli has an}^ 
 it priori claim to permanence, much less any self- 
 evident constancy. Why must the speed of a body, 
 left to itself, continue the same, any more than its 
 
 ♦ It has already been stated that the resisting mediu in spoken of in 
 Chapter VIII. of this Book has not yet produced any sffect which can 
 be detected in the motion of the earth. Probably the effect of this 
 medium upon the rotation of the earth would be extremely small com- 
 pared with its effect on the earth's motion in her orbit ; and yet this 
 latter effect bears no discoverable proportion to the effec t of the smallest 
 perturbing forces of the other planets. 
 
202 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 THE LAWS OF MOTION. 
 
 203 
 
 m 
 
 temperature. Hot bodies grow cooler when left to 
 themselves; why should not quick bodies go slower when 
 left to tliemselves ? Why must a body describe 1000 
 feet i^ the next second because it has described 1000 
 feet in the last? Nothing but experience, under 
 proper cii'cumstances, can inform us whether bodies, 
 abstracting from external agency, do move according 
 to such a rule. We find that tliey do so : we learn 
 that all diminution of their speed wliich ever taltes 
 place, can be traced to external causes. Contrary to 
 all that men had guessed, motion appears to be of 
 itself endless and unwearied. In order to account for 
 the imalterable permanence of the length of our day, 
 aU that is requisite is to show that there is no let or 
 hindrance in the way of the earth's rotation ;-— no 
 resisting medium or alteration of size— she " spinning 
 sleejjs " on her axle, as the poet expresses it, and may 
 go on sleeping with the same regulaiity for ever, so 
 far as the experimental properties of motion are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Such is the necessary consequence of the first law of 
 motion ; but the law itself has no necessary existence, 
 so far as we can see. It was discovered only after 
 various perplexities and false conjectures of speculators 
 on mechanics. We have learnt that it is so, but we 
 have not learnt, nor can any one undertake to teach us, 
 that it must have been so. For aught we can teU, it is 
 one among a thousand equally possible laws, which 
 might have regulated the motions of bodies. 
 
 II. But though we have thus no reason to consider 
 this as the only possible law, we have good reason to 
 
 consider it as the best, or at least as possessing all that 
 we can conceive of advantage. It is the sim^dest con- 
 ceivable of such laws. If the velocity had been com- 
 pelled to change with the time, there must have been a 
 law of the change, and the kind and amount of this 
 change must have been determined by its dependence 
 on the time and other conditions. This, though quite 
 supposable, would undoubtedly have been nn)re complex 
 than the present state of things. And tliough com- 
 plexity does not appear to embarrass the operation of 
 the laws of natm-e, and is admitted, without scruple, 
 when there is reason for it, simplicity is the usual 
 character of such laws, and appeal's to have been a 
 ground of selection in the formation of the universe, 
 as it is a mark of beauty to us in our contemplation 
 of it. 
 
 But there is a still stronger appai-ent reason for Uie 
 selection of tliis law of the preservation of motion. If 
 the case had been otherwise, the universe must neces- 
 saiily in the course of ages have been reduced to a 
 state of rest, or at least to a state not sensibly differing 
 from it. If tlie earth's motion, round its axis, had 
 slackened by a very small quantity, for instance, by a 
 hmidredth of a second in a revolution, ajid in tliis 
 proportion continued, the day would have been akeady 
 lengthened by six hom-s in the 6000 years wliich have 
 elapsed since the history of the world began ; and if we 
 suppose a longer period to precede or to follow, the day 
 might be increased to a month or to any length. All 
 the adaptations which depend on the length of the day, 
 would consequently be deranged. But this would not 
 
'^ 
 
 M 
 
 204 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 be all ; for the same law of motion is equally requisite 
 for the preservation of the annual motion of the earth. 
 If her motion were retarded by the establishment of 
 any other law instead of the existing one, she would 
 wheel nearer and nearer to the sun at every revolution, 
 and at last reach the centre, like a faUing hoop. The 
 same would happen to the other planets ; and the whole 
 solar system would, in the course of a certain period, 
 be gathered into a heap of matter without life or 
 motion. In the present state of things on the other 
 hand, the system, as we have already explained, is, by 
 a combination of remarkable provisions, calculated for 
 an almost indefinite existence, of undiminished fitness 
 for its purposes. 
 
 There are, therefore, manifest reasons, why, of all 
 laws which could occupy the place of the first law of 
 motion, the one which now obtains is the only one 
 consistent with the durability and uniformity of the 
 system ;— the one, therefore, wliich we may naturally 
 conceive to be selected by a wise contriver. And as, 
 along with this, it has appeared that we have no sort of 
 light to attribute the establishment of this law to any- 
 thing but selection, we have here a striking evidence of 
 design, suited to lead us to a perception of that Divine 
 mind, by wliich means so simple are made to answer 
 purposes so extensive and so beneficial. 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 205 
 
 Chap. XII. — Friction.* 
 
 We shall not pursue this argument of tlie last chapter, 
 by considering the other laws of motion in the same 
 manner as we have there considered the first, which 
 might be done. But the facts which form exceptions 
 and apparent contradictions to the first law of which 
 we have been treating, and which are ver}? numerous, 
 offer, we conceive, an additional exemplification of 
 the same argument; and this we shall endeavour to 
 illustrate. 
 
 The rule that a body naturally moves for ever with 
 an undiminished speed, is so far from being obviously 
 true, that it appears on a first examination to be mani- 
 festly false. The hoop of the school-boy, left to itself, 
 runs on a short distance, and then stops ; his top spins 
 a little while, but finally flags and falls ; all motion on 
 the earth appears to decay by its own nature; all 
 matter which we move appears to have a perpetual 
 tendency to divest itself of the velocity which we com- 
 municate to it. How is this reconcilable with the first 
 law of motion on which we have been insistimg ? 
 
 It is reconciled principally by consideriiig the effect 
 of Friction. Among terrestrial objects fri(;tion exerts 
 an agency almost as miiversal and constant as the laws 
 
 * Though Friction is, not obviously concerned in any cosmical 
 phenomena, we have thought this the proper place to introduce the 
 consideration of it ; since the contrast between the cai;es in which it 
 does act, and those in which it does not, is best illustrg.ted by a com- 
 parison of cosmical with terrestrial motions. 
 

 206 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 of motion themselves; an agency which completely 
 changes and disguises the results of those laws. We 
 shall consider some of these effects. 
 
 It is probably not necessary to explain at any length 
 the nature and operation of friction. When a body 
 cannot move without causing two surfaces to rub toge- 
 ther, this rubbing has a tendency to diminish the body's 
 motion or to prevent it entirely. If the body of a car- 
 riage be placed on the earth without tlie wheels, a 
 considerable force will be requisite in order to move 
 it at all: it is here the friction against the ground 
 which obstructs the motion. If the carriage be placed 
 on its wheels, a much less force will move it, but if 
 moved it will soon stop : it is the friction at the ground 
 and at the axles which stops it : placed on a level rail- 
 road, with well made and well oiled wheels, and once 
 put in motion, it might rim a considerable distance 
 alone, for the friction is here much less ; but there is 
 friction, and therefore the motion would after a time 
 cease. 
 
 The same kind of action between the surfaces of two 
 bodies which retards and stops their motions when 
 they move touching each other, will also prevent theii* 
 moving at all, if the force which urges them into 
 motion be insuf&cient to overcome the resistance which 
 the contact of the surfaces produces. Friction, as 
 writers on mechanics use the term, exists not only 
 when the sm-faces rub against each other, but also 
 when the state of things is such that they would rub if 
 they did move. It is a force which is called into 
 action by a tendency to move, and which forbida 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 207 
 
 motion; it may be Hkened to a chain of a certain 
 force which binds bodies in their places ; and we may 
 push or pull the bodies Avithout moving them, except 
 we exert a sufficient force to break this imaginary 
 chain. 
 
 I. The friction which we shall prhicipally consider 
 is the friction which irrevents motion. 80 employed, 
 friction is one of the most universal and important 
 agents in the mechanism of our daily comforts and 
 occupations. It is a force which is called into play 
 to an extent incoitiparably greater than aU the other 
 forces with which we are concerned in the course of our 
 daily life. We are dependent upon it at every instant 
 and in every action : and it is not possible to enumerate 
 all the ways in which it ser\'es us ; scarctdy even to 
 suggest a sufficient number of them to give us a true 
 notion of its functions. 
 
 What can appear more simple operations than 
 standing and walking ? y-t it is easy to see that without 
 the aid of friction these simple actions would scarcely 
 be possible. Every one knows how difficult and dan- 
 gerous they are when performed on smootli ic e. In such 
 a situation we cannot always succeed in standincr : if the 
 ice be very smooth, it is by no means easy to walk, 
 even when the surface is perfectly level ; and if it were 
 ever so Httle inclined, no one would make the attempt. 
 Yet walking on the ice and on the ground differ only 
 in our experiencing -more friction in the latter case. 
 We say more, for there is a considerable friction even 
 in the case of ice, as we see by the small distance which 
 a stone shdes when thrown along the surface. It is 
 
■^^r— ^ 
 
 208 
 
 COSMICAL AllR AN CEMENTS. 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 this friction of the earth which, at every step we take, 
 prevents the foot from sHding hack ; and thus allows 
 us to push the hody and the other foot forwards. And 
 when we come to violent bodily motions, to running, 
 leaping, pulling or pushing objects, it is easily seen how 
 entirely we depend upon the friction of the ground for 
 our strength and force. Every one knows how com- 
 pletely powerless we become in any of these actions by 
 the foot slipping. 
 
 In tlie same manner it is the friction of objects to 
 which the hand is applied, which enables us to hold 
 tliem with any degree of firmness. In some contests 
 it was formerly the custom for the combatants to rub 
 their bodies with oil, that the adversary might not be 
 able to keep his grasp. If the i)ole of the boatman, 
 the rope of the sailor, were thus smooth and lubricated, 
 how weak would be the thrust and the pull ! Yet this 
 would only be the removal of friction. 
 
 Our buildings are no less dependent on this force 
 for tlieir stability. Some edifices are erected without 
 the aid of cement : and if the stones be large and w^ell 
 squared, such structures may be highl}^ substantial and 
 durable ; even wdien rude and slight, houses so built 
 answer the purposes of life. These are entirely upheld 
 by friction, and without the support of that agent the}'" 
 would be thrown down by the zephyr, far more easily 
 than if all the stones were lumps of ice with a thawing 
 surface. But even in cases where cement hinds the 
 masonry, it does not take the duty of holding it toge- 
 ther. In consequence of the existence of friction, there 
 is no constant tendency of the stones to separate ; they 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 209 
 
 are in a state of repose. If this were not so, if every 
 shock and every breeze required to be counteracted by 
 the 6ement, no composition exists which would long 
 sustain such a wear and tear. The cement excludes 
 the corroding elements, and helps to resist extraordi- 
 nary violence ; but it is friction which gives the habitual 
 state of rest. 
 
 We are not to consider friction as a mnall force, 
 sHghtly modifying the effects of other age^ncies. On 
 the contrary its amount is in most cases very great. 
 When a body lies loose on the ground, the friction is 
 equal to one third or one half, or in some cases the 
 whole, of its weight. But in cases of bodies supported 
 by obhque pressure, the amount is far more enormous. 
 In the arch of a bridge, the friction which is called 
 into play between two of the vaulting stones, may be 
 equal to the whole weight of the bridge. In such 
 cases this consei-vative force is so great, that the 
 common theory, which neglects it, does not help us 
 even to guess what will take place. According to the 
 theory, certam forms of arches only will stand; but 
 in practice ahnost any form will stand, and it is not 
 easy to construct a model of a bridge which will fall. 
 
 We may see the great force of fiiction in the brake, 
 by which a large weight running down a long inclined 
 plane has its motion moderated and stopped ; in the 
 windlass, where a few coils of the rope round a cylinder 
 sustain the stress and weight of a large iron anchor ; 
 in the nail or screw which holds together laicge beams ; 
 in the mode of raising large blocks of greinite by an 
 ii'on rod driven into a hole in the stone. Probably 
 

 210 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 no greater forces are exercised in any processes in the 
 arts than the force of friction ; and it is always em- 
 ployed to produce rest, stability, moderate motion. 
 Being always ready and never wearied, always at hand 
 and augmenting with the exigency, it regulates, con- 
 trols, subdues all motions ; — counteracts all other 
 agents ;--and finally gains the mastery over all other 
 terrestrial agencies, however violent, frequent, or long 
 continued. The perpetual action of all other terrestrial 
 forces appears, on a large scale, only as so many inter- 
 ruptions of the constant and stationary rule of friction. 
 The objects which every where surround us, the 
 books or dishes which stand on our tables, our tables 
 and chaii's themselves, the loose clods and stones in 
 the field, the heaviest masses produced by nature or 
 art, would be in a perpetual motion, quick or slow 
 according to the forces which acted on them, and to 
 their size, if it were not for the tranquilHsing and 
 steadying effects of the agent we are considering. 
 Without this, our apartments, if they kept their shape, 
 would exhibit to us articles of furniture, and of all 
 other kinds, sHding and creeping from side to side at 
 every push and every wind, like loose objects in a 
 ship's cabin, when she is changing her course in a gale. 
 Here, then, we have a force, most extensive and 
 incessant in its operation, which is absolutely essen- 
 tial to the business of this terrestrial world, according 
 to any notion which we can form. The more any one 
 considers its effects, the more he will find how univer- 
 sally dependent he is upon it, in every action of his 
 life; resting or moving, dealing with objects of axt 
 
 211 
 
 or of nature, with instruments of enjoyment or of 
 action. 
 
 II. Now we have to observe concerning this agent. 
 Friction, that we have no ground for asseiting it to be 
 a necessary result of other properties of matter, for 
 instance, of their solidity and coherency. Philosophers 
 have not been able to deduce the laws of friction from 
 the other known properties of matter, nor even to 
 explain what we know experimentally of such laws, 
 (which is not much,) without introducing new hypo- 
 theses concerning the surfaces of bodies, &:c. — hypotheses 
 which are not supplied us by any other s€ t of pheno- 
 mena. So far as our knowledge goes, friction is a 
 separate property, and may be conceived i) liave been 
 bestowed upon matter for particular purj»oses. How 
 well it answers the purpose of fitting matter for the 
 uses of the daily life of man, we have already seen. 
 
 We may make suppositions as to the mode in w^hich 
 friction is connected with the texture of bodies ; but 
 little can be gained for philosophy, or for speculation 
 of any kind, by such conjectures respecting unknown 
 connexions. If, on the other hand, we consider this 
 property of friction, and find that it prevails there, 
 and there only, where the general functions, analogies, 
 and relations of the universe require it, we shall 
 probably receive a strong impression that it was intro- 
 duced into the system of the w^orld for a purpose. 
 
 HI. It is very r.emarkable that this force, which is 
 
 thus so efficacious, and discharges such important 
 
 offices in all earthly mechanism, disappeais altogether 
 
 when we turn to the mechanism of the iK^avens. All 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 motions on the earth soon stop ;— a machine which 
 imitates tlie movements of the stars cannot go long- 
 without winding up: but the stai's themselves have 
 gone on in their courses for ages, with no diminution 
 of their motions, and offer no obvious prospect of any 
 change. Tliis is so palpable a fact, that the first 
 attempts of men to systematise their mechanical notions 
 were founded upon it. The ancients held that motions 
 were to be distinguished into natural motions and 
 vtolent,~the former go on without diminution— the 
 latter are soon extinguished ;— the motions of the stars 
 are of the former kind ;--those of a stone thrown, and 
 m short all terrestrial motions, of the latter. Modern 
 Philosophers maintain that the laws of motion are the 
 same for celestial and terrestrial bodies;— that all 
 motions are natural according to the above description; 
 but that in terrestrial motions, friction comes in and 
 alters their character,— destroys them so speedily that 
 they appear to have existed only during an effort. And 
 that this is the case will not now be contested. Is it 
 not then somewhat remarkable that the same laws 
 which produce a state of permanent motion in the 
 heavens, should, on the eailh, give rise to a condition 
 m which rest is the rule and motion the exception '^ 
 The air, the waters, and the lighter portions of matter 
 are, no doubt, in a state of perpetual movement; over 
 these friction has no empire : yet even their motions 
 are interrupted, alternate, variable, and on the whole 
 slight deviations from the condition of equHibrium. 
 But in the solid parts of the globe, rest predominates 
 incomparably over motion : and this, not only with 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 213 
 
 regard to the portions which cohere as pai-ts of the 
 same solid; for the whole surface of the eaiiih is 
 covered with loose masses, which, if the power of 
 friction were abolished, would rush from their places 
 and begin one universal and interminable dance, which 
 would make the earth absolutely uninhabitable. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the dominion of friction were 
 extended in any considerable degi-ee into the planetary 
 spaces, there would soon be an end of the svstem. If 
 the planet had moved in a fluid, such as the Cartesians 
 supposed, and if this fluid had been subject to the 
 rules of friction which prevail in terrestrial fluids, their 
 motions could not have been of long duration. The 
 solar system must soon have ceased to be a system of 
 revolving bodies. 
 
 But friction is neither abolished on the earth, nor 
 active in the heavens. It operates where it is wanted, 
 it is absent where it would be prejudicial. And both 
 these circumstances occasion, in a remarkable manner, 
 the steadiness of the course of nature. The stable 
 condition of the objects in man's immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, and the unvarying motions of the luminaries 
 of heaven, are alike conducive to his well-being. Tliis 
 requires that he should be able to depend upon a fixed 
 order of place, a fixed course of time. It requires, 
 therefore, that terrestrial objects should be affected by 
 friction, and that celestial should not ; as is the case, in 
 fact. What fm-ther .evidence of benevolent design could 
 tliis part of the constitution of the universe supply ? 
 
 IV. There is another view which may be taken 
 of the forces which operate on the earth to produce 
 
214 
 
 COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 permanency or change. Some parts of the terrestrial 
 system are under the dommion of powers which act 
 energeticaUy to 'prevent all motion, as the crystalhne 
 forces by which the parts of rocks are bound together ; 
 other parts are influenced by powers whicli produce a 
 perpetual movement and change in the matter of which 
 they consist ; thus plants and animals are in a constant 
 state of internal motion, by the agency of the vital 
 forces. In the former case rigid immutability, in the 
 latter perpetual development, are the tendencies of the 
 agencies employed. Now in the case of objects aflected 
 by friction, we have a kind of intermediate condition, 
 between the constantly fixed and the constantly move- 
 able. Such objects can and do move ; but they move 
 but for a short time if left to the laws of nature. " 
 When at rest, they can easily be put in motion, but 
 still not with unlimited ease; a certain finite effort, 
 different in different cases, is requisite for this purpose'. 
 Now this intermediate condition, this capacity of 
 receiving readily and alternately the states of rest and 
 motion, is absolutely requisite for the nature of man, 
 for the exertion of will, of contrivance, of foresight, as 
 well as for the comfort of hfe and the conditions of our 
 material existence. If all objects were fixed and im- 
 moveable, as if frozen into one mass ; or if they were 
 susceptible of such motions only as are found in the 
 parts of vegetables, we attempt in vain to conceive what 
 would come of the business of the world. But, besides 
 the state of a particle which cannot be moved, and of 
 a particle which cannot be stopped, we have the 
 state of a particle moveable but not moved; or moved, 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 215 
 
 but moved only while we choose : and this state 
 is that about which the powers, the thoughts, and the 
 wants of man are mainlv conversant. 
 
 Thus the forces by wliich solidity and by which 
 organic action are produced, the laws of permanence 
 and of development, do not bring about all that happens. 
 Besides these, there is a mechanical condition, that of 
 a body exposed to friction, which is neither one of 
 absolute permanency nor one naturally progressive ; but 
 is yet one absolutely necessary to make material objects 
 capable of being instruments and aids to man; and 
 this is the condition of b}^ far the gi'eater part of ter- 
 restrial things. The habitual course of events with 
 regard to motion and rest is not the sam(3 for familiar 
 moveable articles, as it is for* the parts of the mineral, 
 or of the vegetable world, when left to themselves ; such 
 articles are in a condition far better adajtted than any 
 of those other conditions would be, to their i^lace and 
 purpose. Surely this shows us an ailaptation, an 
 adjustment, of the constitution of the material world 
 to the nature of man. And as the organisation of plants 
 cannot be conceived otherwise than as having their 
 life and growth for its object, so we cannot conceive 
 that friction should be one of the leading agencies in 
 the world in whicli man 'is placed, without supposing 
 that it was mtended to be of use when man should walk 
 and run, and build houses and ships, and bridges, and 
 execute innumerable other processes, all of which 
 would be impossible, admirably constitutiid as man is 
 in other respects, if friction did not exist. And believ- 
 ing, as we conceive we cannot but believe, that the laws 
 
216 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 of motion and rest were thus given Avitli reference to 
 theii- ends, we perceive in this instance, as in others, 
 how wide and profound this reference is, how simple in 
 its means, how feilile in its consequences, how effective 
 in its details. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 The contemplation of the material miiverse exhibits 
 God to us as the author of the laws of material nature ; 
 bringing before us a wonderful spectacle, in the sim- ' 
 plicity, the comprehensiveness, the mutual adaptation 
 of these laws, and in the vast variety of harmonious 
 and beneficial effects produced by their mutual bearing 
 and combined operation. But it is the consideration 
 of the moral world, of the results of our powers of 
 thought and action, which leads us to regard the Deity 
 in that light in which our relation to him becomes a 
 matter of the highest interest and importance. We 
 perceive that man is capable of referring his actions to 
 principles of right and wrong ; that both his faculties 
 and his vii'tues may be unfolded and advanced by the 
 discipline which arises from the circumstances of human 
 society ; that good men can be discriminated from the 
 bad, only by a com-se of trial, by struggles with diffi- 
 culty and temptation ; that the best men feel deeply 
 the need of relying, in such conflicts, on the thought of 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 217 
 
 a superintending Spiritual Power ; that our views of 
 justice, our capacity for intellectual and moral advance- 
 ment, and a crowd of hopes and anticipations which 
 rise in our bosoms unsought, and cling there with 
 inexhaustible tenacity, will not allow us to acquiesce 
 in the belief that this life is the end of our existence. 
 We are thus led to see that our relation to the 
 Superintender of our moral being, to the ]3epositary 
 of the supreme law of just aud right, is a relation of 
 incalculable consequence. We find that we cannot be 
 permitted to be merely contemplators and speculators 
 with regard to the Governor of the moral ivorld ; we 
 must obey His will ; we must turn our afiections to 
 Him; we must advance in His favour; or we offend 
 against the nature of our position in the scheme of 
 which He is the author and sustainer. 
 
 It is far from our purpose to represent natural 
 religion as of itself sufficient for our support and 
 guidance ; or to underrate the manner in which our 
 view^s of the Lord of the universe have been, much 
 more, perhaps, than w^e are sometimes aware, illus- 
 trated and confirmed by lights derived from revelation. 
 We do not here speak of the manner in which men 
 have come to believe in God, as the Governor of the 
 moral world ; but of the fact, that by the aid of one or 
 both of these two guides, Eeason or Revelation, re- 
 flecting j)ersons in every age have been led to such a 
 belief. And w^e conceive it may be useful to point 
 out some connexion between such a belief of a just 
 and holy Governor, and the conviction, which we 
 have akeady endeavoured to impress upon the reader, 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 » 
 
 •i 
 
218 
 
 llELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 of a wise and benevolent Creator of the physical world. 
 This we shall endeavour to do in the present book. 
 
 At the same time that men have thus learnt to look 
 upon God as theii- Governor and Judge, the source of 
 their support and reward, they have also been led, not 
 only to ascribe to him power and skill, knowledge and 
 goodness, but also to attribute to him these quahtiesin 
 a mode and degree excluding all limit :— to consider 
 him as almighty, aUwise, of infinite knowledge and 
 inexhaustible goodness ; everywhere present and active, 
 but incomprehensible by our minds, both in the manner 
 of his agency, and the degree of his perfections. And 
 this impression concerning the Deity appears to be that 
 which the mind receives from all objects of contempla- 
 tion and all modes of advance towards truth. To this 
 conception it leaps with alacrity and joy, and in this it 
 acquiesces with tranquil satisfaction and growing confi- 
 dence ; while any other view of the nature of tlie Divine 
 Power which formed and sustained the world, is inco- 
 herent and untenable, exposed to insurmountable objec- 
 tions and intolerable incongi-uities. We shall endeavour 
 to show that the modes of employment of the thoughts 
 to which the well conducted study of nature gives rise, 
 do tend, in all their forms, to produce or strengthen 
 this impression on the mind ; and that such an impres- 
 sion, and no other, is consistent with the wisest views 
 and most comprehensive aspects of nature and of 
 philosophy, which our Natural Philosophy opens to 
 us. This will be the purpose of the latter part of the 
 present book. In the fii-st place we shall proceed with 
 the object first mentioned, the connexion which may 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOK. 
 
 219 
 
 be perceived between the evidences of creative power, 
 and of moral government, in the world. 
 
 Chap. I.— The Creator of the Physical Woild is the Gm^emor of 
 
 the Moral World. 
 
 With our views of the moral government of the 
 world and the religious interests of man, the study of 
 material nature is not and cannot be directly and 
 closely connected. But it may be of some service to 
 trace in these two lines of reasoning, seemingly so 
 remote, a manifest convergence to the same point, a 
 demonstrable unity of result. It may be useful to 
 show that we are thus led, not to two rult^rs of the 
 universe, but to one God ; — to make it appear that the 
 Creator and Preserver of the world is also the Governor 
 and Judge of men ; that the Author of the Laws of 
 Nature is also the Author of the Law of Duty ;— that 
 He who regulates corporeal things by properties of 
 attraction and affinity and assimilating power, is the 
 same being who regulates the actions and conditions of 
 men, by the influence of the feeling of responsibility, 
 the perception of right and wrong, the hope of happiness, 
 
 the love of good. 
 
 The conviction that the Divine attributes which we 
 are taught by the study of the material world, and 
 those which we learn from the contemplation of man 
 as a responsible agent, belong to the same Divine 
 Being, will be forced upon us, if we consider the 
 manner in which all the parts of the universe, the 
 corporeal and intellectual, the animal and moral, are 
 
 
 I 
 
220 
 
 EELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 connected mtli eacli other. In each of tliese provinces 
 of creation we trace refined adaptations and arrange- 
 ments ivhich lead us to the Creator and Director of ^so 
 skilful a system ; but these piwdnces are so intermixed, 
 these diflerent trains of contrivance so interwoven that 
 we cannot, in our tlioughts, separate the author of one 
 pai-t from the author of another. The Creator of the 
 Heavens and of the Earth, of the inorganic and of the 
 organic world, of animals and of man, of the affections 
 Mid the conscience, appears inevitably to be one and 
 the same God. 
 
 We will pursue tliis reflection a Uttle more into 
 detail. 
 
 I. The Atmosphere is a mere mass of fluid floating 
 on tlie sm-face of the ball of the earth ; it is one of the 
 inert and inorganic portions of the universe, and must 
 be conceived to have been formed by the same Power 
 which formed the soUd mass of tlie earth and all other 
 parts of the solar system. But how far is the atmos- 
 phere from beuig inert in its efi-ects on organic beings 
 and unconnected with the world of life! By what 
 wonderful adaptations of its mechanical and chemical 
 properties, and of tlie vital powers of plants, to each 
 other, are the development and well-being of plants 
 and aiiimals secured ! The creator of the atmosphere 
 must have been also the creator of plants and animals • 
 we cannot for an instant beheve the contrary. But the 
 atmosphere is not only subservient to the Ufe of animals 
 and of man among the rest ; it is also the vehicle of 
 voice ; It answers the pmpose of intercourse ; and, in 
 the case of man, of rational intercourse. We have seen 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOR . 
 
 221 
 
 how remarkably the air is fitted for this office ; the 
 construction of the organs of articulation, by which 
 they are enabled to perform tlieii* part of the work, is, 
 as is well known, a most exquisite system of contriv- 
 ances. But though living in an atmosphere c;apable of 
 transmitting articulate sound, and though pro\ided 
 with organs fitted to articulate, man w^ould never attain 
 to the use of language, if he were not also endowed witli 
 another set of faculties. The powers of abstraction and 
 generalisation, memory and reason, the tendencies 
 which occasion the inflexions and combinations of 
 words, are all necessary to the formation and use of 
 language. Are not these pai'ts of the same scheme of 
 wdiich the bodily fticulties by which we are able to 
 speak are another part ? Has man liis mental powers 
 independently of the creator of his bodily frame ? To 
 what purpose then, or by what cause w^as tlie curious 
 and complex machinery of the tongue, the glottis, the 
 larynx produced ? These are useful for speech, and 
 full of contrivances which suggest such a use as the 
 end for which those organs were constructed. But 
 speech appears to have been no less contemj)lated in 
 the intellectual structure of man. The processes of 
 which we Have spoken, generalisation, abstraction, 
 reasoning, have a close dependence on the use of 
 speech. These faculties are presupposed in the 
 formation of language, but they are developed and 
 perfected by the us^ of language. The mind of man 
 then, with all its intellectual endowments, is the work 
 of the same artist by w^hose hands his bodily frame was 
 fashioned ; as his bodily faculties again are evidently 
 
222 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 constructed by the maker of those elements on which 
 their action depends. The creator of the atmosphere 
 and of the material universe is the creator of the human 
 mind, and the author of those wonderful powers of 
 thinking, judging, inferring, discovering, by which we 
 are able to reason concerning the world in which we 
 are placed ; and which aid us in lifting our thoughts to 
 the source of our being himself. 
 
 II. Light, or the means by which light is propagated, 
 is another of the inorganic elements which forms a 
 portion of the mere material world. The luminiferous 
 etlier, if we adopt that theory, or the fluid light of the 
 theory of emission, must indubitably pervade the 
 remotest regions of the universe, and must be sup- 
 posed to exist, as soon as we suppose the material 
 parts of the universe to be in existence. The origin of 
 light then must be at least as far removed from us as 
 the origin of the solar system. Yet how closely con- 
 nected are the properties of light with the structure of 
 our own bodies ! The mechanism of the organs of 
 vision and the mechanism of light are, as we have seen, 
 most curiously adapted to each other. We must sup- 
 pose, then, that the same power and skiU produced one 
 and the other of these two sets of contrivances, which 
 so remarkably ,^« into each other. The creator of light 
 is the author of om^ visual powers. But how small a 
 portion does mere visual perception constitute of the 
 advantages which we derive from vision ! We possess 
 ulterior faculties and capacities by which sight becomes 
 a source of happiness and good to man. The sense of 
 beauty, the love of art, the pleasure arising from the 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOR. 
 
 223 
 
 contemplation of nature, are all dependent on the eye ; 
 and we can hardly doubt that these faculties were 
 bestowed on man to further the best interests of his 
 being. The sense of beauty both animates and refines 
 his domestic tendencies ; the love of art is a powerful 
 instrument for raising liim above the mere cravings 
 and satisfactions of his animal nature ; the expansion 
 of mind which rises in us at tlie sight of the starry sky, 
 the cloud-capt mountain, the boundless ocean, seems 
 intended to direct our thoughts by an impressive 
 though indefinite feeling, to the Infinite Author of 
 All. But if these faculties be thus part of the scheme 
 of man's inner being, given him by a good and wise 
 creator, can we suppose that this creator was any 
 other than the creator also of those visual organs, 
 without which the faculties could have no operation 
 and no existence ? As clearly as light and tlie eye are 
 the work of the same author, so clearly also do our 
 capacities for the most exalted visual pleasures, and the 
 feelings flowing from them, proceed from the same 
 Divine Hand, by which the mechanism of light was 
 constructed. 
 
 III. The creator of the earth must be conceived to 
 be the author also of all those qualities in the soil, 
 chemical and whatever else, by which it supports 
 vegetable life, under all the modifications of natural 
 and artificial condition. Among tlie attributes which 
 the earth thus possesses, there are some whicli seem to 
 have an especial reference to man in a state of society. 
 Such are the power of the earth to increase its produce 
 under the influence of cultivation, and the necessary 
 
224 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 existence of property in land, in order that this culti- 
 vation may be advantageously applied ; the rise, under 
 such circumstances, of a surplus produce, of a quantity 
 of subsistence exceeding the wants of the cultivators 
 alone ; and the consequent possibility of inequalities of 
 rank and of all the arrangements of civil society. 
 These are all parts of the constitution of the earth. 
 But these would all remain mere idle possibilities, if 
 the nature of man had not a corresponding direction. 
 If man had not a social and economical tendencj^ a 
 disposition to congregate and co-operate, to distribute 
 possessions and offices among the members of the com- 
 munity, to make and obey and enforce laws, the eartli 
 would in vain be ready to respond to the care of the 
 husbandman. Must we not then suppose that tliis 
 attribute of the earth was bestowed upon it by Him 
 who gave to man those corresponding attributes, 
 through which the apparent niggardhness of the soil 
 is the source of general comfort and security, of polity 
 and law ? Must we not suppose that He who created 
 the soil, also inspired man with those social desires 
 and feelings which produce cities and states, laws and 
 institutions, arts and civilisation ; and that thus the 
 apparently inert mass of earth is a part of the same 
 scheme as those faculties and powers with which man's 
 moral and intellectual progress is most connected ? 
 
 IV. Again : — It will hardly be questioned that the 
 author of the material elements is also the author of the 
 structure of animals, which is adapted to and provided 
 for by the constitution of the elements in such innu- 
 merable ways. But the author of the bodily structure 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOR. 
 
 225 
 
 of animals must also be the author of thek instincts, 
 for without these the structure would not aaswer its 
 purpose. And these instincts frequently assume the 
 character of affections in a most remarkable manner. 
 The love of offspring, of home, of companions, are 
 often displayed by animals, in a way that strikes the 
 most indifferent observer ; and yet these affections will 
 hardly be denied to be a part of the same scheme as 
 the instincts by which the same animals seek food and 
 the gratifications of sense. Who can doubt that the 
 anxious and devpted affection of the mothei'-bii'd for 
 her young after they are hatched, is a part of the same 
 svstem of Providence as the instmct b}^ which she is 
 impelled to sit upon her eggs ? and this, of the same 
 by which her eggs are so organised that incubation 
 leads to the birth of the young animal ? ^ or, again, 
 can we imagine that while the structure and affections 
 of animals belong to one system of tilings, the affec- 
 tions of man, in many respects so similar to those of 
 animals, and connected with the bodily frame in a 
 manner so closely analogous, can belong to a different 
 scheme. \Mio, that reads the touching instances of 
 maternal affection, related so often of the women of all 
 nations, and of the females of all iinimals, can doubt 
 that the principle of action is the same in the two 
 cases though enlightened in one of them by the rational 
 faculty ? And who can place in separate provinces the 
 supporting and protecting love of the fatlier and of the 
 mother? or consider as entirely distinct from these, 
 and belonging to another part of our nature, the other 
 kinds of family affection ? or disjoin man's love of his 
 
 ■ li 
 
 V' 
 
 11 
 
226 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 home, his clan, liis tribe, his country, from the affection 
 which he bears to his family ? The love of offspring, 
 home, friends, in man, is then j^art of the same system 
 of contrivances of which bodily organisation is another 
 part. And thus the author of our corporeal frame is 
 also the author of our capacity of kindness and resent- 
 ment, of our love and of our wish to be loved, of all the 
 emotions which bind us to individuals, to our famihes, 
 and to our kind. 
 
 It is not necessary here to follow out and classify 
 these emotions and affections ; or to examine how they 
 are combined and connected with our other motives of 
 action, mutually giving and receiving strength and 
 direction. The desire of esteem, of power, of know^- 
 ledge, of society, the love of Idndred, of friends, of our 
 country, are manifestly among the main forces by which 
 man is urged to act and to abstain. And as these 
 parts of the constitution of man are clearly intended, 
 as we conceive, to impel him m his appointed patli ; so 
 we conceive that they are no less clearly the work 
 of the same great Artificer who created the heart, 
 the eye, the hand, the tongue, and that elemental 
 w^orld in which, by means of these instruments, 
 man pursues the objects of his appetites, desires, and 
 affections. 
 
 V. But if the Creator of the world be also the author 
 of our intellectual powers, of our feeling for the beau- 
 tiful and the sublime, of our social tendencies, and of 
 our natural desiiTs and affections, we shall find it im- 
 possible not to ascribe also to Him the higher directive 
 attributes of our nature, the conscience and the religious 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOR. 
 
 227 
 
 feeling, the reference of our actions to the rule of duty 
 and to the will of God. 
 
 It would not suit the plan of the present treatise to 
 enter into any detailed analysis of the connexion of 
 these various portions of our moral constitution. But 
 we may obsen^e that the existence and universality of 
 the conception of duty and right cannot be; doubted, 
 however men mav differ as to its original or derivative 
 nature. All men are perpetually led to form judgments 
 concerning actions, and emotions which lead to action, 
 as right or wrong: as what they oucfht or ought not to 
 do or feel. There is a faculty which approves and dis- 
 approves, acquits or condemns the workings of om* 
 other faculties. Now, what shall we say of such a 
 judiciary principle, tlms inti-oduced among our motives 
 to action? Shall w^e conceive that while the other 
 springs of action are balanced against each other by 
 our Creator, this the most pervading and imiversal 
 regulator, was no part of the original scheme ? That 
 — w^hile the love of animal pleasures, of power, of fame, 
 the regard for friends, the pleasure of bestowing plea- 
 sure, were infused into man as influences by which his 
 course of life was to be carried on, and his capacities 
 and powers developed and exercised ;— this reverence 
 for a moral law, this acknowledgment of the obligation 
 of duty, — a feeling which is ever^^here found, and 
 which may become a powerful, a predominating motive 
 of action, — ^was given for no purpose, and belongs not 
 to the design ? Such an opinion ^uld be luuch as if 
 we should acknowledge the sldll and contrivance mani- 
 fested in the other pai-ts of a ship, but should refuse to 
 
 q2 
 
228 
 
 llELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 recognise the rudder as exhibiting any evidence of a 
 purpose. Without the reverence which the opinion of 
 right inspires, and the scourge of general disapprobation 
 inflicted on that which is accounted wicked, society 
 could scarcely go on; and certainly the feelings and 
 thoughts and characters of men could not be what they 
 are. Those impulses of nature which involve no 
 acknowledgment of responsibility, and the play and 
 struggle of interfering wishes, might preserve the 
 species in some shape of existence, as we see in the 
 case of brutes. But a person must be strangely con- 
 stituted, who, living amid the respect for law, the 
 admiration for what is good, the order and virtues 
 and gi-aces of civilised nations, (all which have their 
 origin in some degree in the feeling of responsibility) 
 can maintain that all these are casual and extraneous 
 circumstances, no way contemplated in tlie formation 
 of man ; and that a condition in which there should be 
 no obligation in law, no merit in self-restraint, no 
 beauty in virtue, is equally suited to the powers and 
 the nature of man, and was equally contemplated when 
 those powers were given him. 
 
 If this supposition be too extravagant to be admitted, 
 as it appears to be, it remains then that man, intended, 
 as we have already seen from his structure and pro- 
 perties, to be a discoursing, social being, acting under 
 the influence of afl'ections, desires, and purposes, was 
 also intended to act under the influence of a sense of 
 duty ; and that the^cknowledgment of the obligation 
 of a moral law is as mucli pai-t of his nature, as hjanger 
 or thirst, maternal love or the desire of power ; that, 
 
 A MORAL GOVERNOR. 
 
 229 
 
 therefore, in conceiving man as the work of a Creator, 
 we must imagine his powers and character given him 
 with an intention on the Creator's part that tliis sense 
 of duty should occupy its place in his constitution as 
 an active and tliinking being : and that this directive and 
 judiciary principle is a part of the work of the same 
 Author who made the elements to minister to the 
 material functions, and the arrangements of the world 
 to occupy the individual and social affections of liis 
 
 living creatures. 
 
 This principle of conscience, it may further be 
 observed, does not stand upon the same level as the 
 other impulses of our constitution by which we are 
 prompted or restrained. By its very nature and 
 essence, it possesses a supremacy over all others. 
 " Your obligation to obey this law is its being the law 
 of your nature. That your conscience approves of and 
 attests such a course of action is itself alone an 
 obligation. Conscience does not only offer itself to 
 show us the way we should walk in, but it like\nse 
 carries its own authority with it, that it is our natui'al 
 guide : the guide assigned us by the author of our 
 nature." * That we ought to do an action, is of itself 
 a sufficient and ultimate answer to the questions, 
 ivhy we should do it?— how we are obUcjed to do 
 it ? The conviction of duty impUes the soundest 
 reason, the strongest obligation, of which om: nature 
 
 is susceptible. . 
 
 We appear then to be using only language winch is 
 well capable of being justified, when we speak of this 
 
 * Butler, Serm. 3. 
 
230 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 irresistible esteem for what is right, this conviction of 
 a rule of action extending beyond the gratification of 
 our irreflective impulses, as an impress stamped upon 
 the human mind by the Deity himself; a trace of His 
 nature; an indication of His will; an announcement 
 of His purpose ; a promise of His favom* ; and though 
 this faculty may need to be confirmed and unfolded, 
 instructed and assisted by other aids, it still seems 
 to contain in itself a sufficient intimation that the 
 highest objects of man's existence are to be attained, 
 by means of a dii-ect and intimate reference of his 
 thoughts and actions to the Divine Author of his being. 
 Such then is the Deity to which the researches of 
 Natural Theology point ; and so far is the train of 
 reflections in which we have engaged, from being 
 merely speculative and barren. With the material 
 world we cannot stop. If a superior Intelligence have 
 ordered and adjusted the succession of seasons and the 
 structure of the plants of the field, w^e must allow far 
 more than this at fii'st sight would seem to imply. 
 We must admit still gixater powers, still higher wisdom 
 for the creation of the beasts of the forest with their 
 faculties ; and higher wisdom still and more transcen- 
 dent attributes, for the creation of man. And when we 
 reach this point, we find that it is not knowledge only, 
 not power only, not foresight and beneficence alone, 
 which we must attribute to the Maker of the World ; 
 but that we must consider.him as the author, in us, of 
 a reverence for moral purity and rectitude ; and, if the 
 author of such emotions in us, how can we conceive of 
 Him otherwise, than that these qualities are parts of 
 
 VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE, 
 
 231 
 
 liis natm-e ; and that He is not only wise and gi'eat, 
 and good, incomparably beyond our highest concep- 
 tions, but also conformed in his purposes to the rule 
 which He thus impresses upon us, that is. Holy in 
 the highest degree w^hich we can image to ourselves as 
 possible. 
 
 Chap. IL—Oii the Vastness of the Universe, 
 
 I. The aspect of the world, even witliout any of the 
 peculiar lights which science throws upon it, is fitted 
 to give us an idea of the greatness of the power by 
 wliich it is dii-ected and governed, far exc(;eding any 
 notions of power and gxeatness which are suggested by 
 any other contemplation. The number of human 
 beings who surround us— the various conditions requi- 
 site for their life, nutrition, well-being, all fulfilled ;— 
 the way in wliich these conditions are modified, as we 
 pass in thought to other countries, by climate, tempera- 
 ment, habit ;— the vast amount of the human population 
 of the globe thus made up ; yet man hiniseK but one 
 among almost endless tribes of animals ;-- the forest, 
 the field, the desert, the air, the ocean, aU teeming 
 with creatm-es whose bodily wants are as carefully pro- 
 vided for as his :— the sun, the clouds, the^ winds, all 
 attending, as it were, on these organised beings ;— a 
 host of beneficent energies, unwearied by time and 
 succession, pervading every corner of the earth ;— this 
 spectacle cannot but give the contemplator a lofty and 
 magnificent conception of the Author of so vast a work, 
 of tlie Ruler of so wide and rich an empire, of the 
 Provider for so many and varied wants, ihe Director 
 
 I 
 
 
232 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEW^. 
 
 and Adjuster of such complex and jarring inte- 
 rests. 
 
 But when we take a more exact view of this spectacle, 
 and aid our visicm by the discoveries which have been 
 made of the structure and extent of the imiverse, the 
 impression is incalculably increased. 
 
 The number and variety of animals, the exquisite 
 skill displayed in their structm-e, the comprehensive 
 and profound relations by which they are connected, 
 far exceed any thing which we could have beforehand 
 imagined. But the view of the universe expands also 
 on another side. The earth, the globular body thus 
 covered with life, is not the only globe in the universe. 
 There are, circling about our own sini, six others, so 
 far as we can judge, perfectly analogous in their nature : 
 besides our moon and other bodies analogous to it. 
 No one can resist the temptation to conjecture, that 
 these globes, some of them much larger than our own, 
 are not dead and l)arren ;— that they are, like ours,' 
 occupied with organisation, life, intelligence. To con^' 
 jecture is all that we can do, yet even by the perception 
 of such a possibility, our view of the domain of nature 
 is enlarged and elevated. The outermost of the 
 planetary globes of which we have spoken is so far 
 from the sun, that the central luminary must appear to 
 the inhabitants of that planet, if any there are, no larger 
 than A^enus does to us ; and the iength of theii- 3^ear 
 will be eighty-two of ours. 
 
 But astronomy carries us stHl onwards. It teaches 
 us that, with the exception of the planets already men- 
 tioned, the stars which we see have no immediate 
 
 
 VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 233 
 
 relation to our system. The obvious supposition is 
 that they are of the nature and order of our sun : the 
 minuteness of then- apparent magnitude agrees, on this 
 supposition, with the enormous and almost inconceiv- 
 able distance which, from all the measurements of 
 astronomers, we are led to attribute to them. If then, 
 these are suns, they may, like our sun, have planets 
 revolving roimd them ; and these may, like our planet, 
 be the seats of vegetable and animal and rational life : 
 — we may thus have in the universe worlds, no one 
 knows how many, no one can guess how varied ; — but 
 however many, however varied, they are still but so 
 many provinces in the same empire, subject to common 
 rules, governed by a common power. 
 
 But the stars which we see with the naked eye are 
 but a very small portion of those which the telescope 
 unveils to us. The most imperfect telescope will 
 discover some that are invisible without it ; the very 
 best instrument perhaps does not show us the most 
 remote. The number of stars which crowd some parts 
 of the heavens is truly marvellous : Dr. Herschel 
 calculated that a portion of the milky way, about 
 10 degrees long and 24 broad, contained 258,000. In 
 a sky so occupied the moon would eclipse 2000 of such 
 
 stars at once. 
 
 We learn too from the telescope that even in tliis 
 province the variety of nature is not exhausted. Not 
 only do the stars differ in coloui' and appearance, but 
 some of them grow periodically fainter and brighter, as 
 if they were dark on one side, and revolved on their 
 axes. In other cases two stars appear close to each 
 
 
234 
 
 KELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 Other, and in some of these cases it has been clearly 
 estabHshed, that the two have a motion of revolution 
 about each other ; thus exhibiting an arrangement new 
 to the astronomer, and giving rise, possibly, to new 
 conditions of worlds. In other instances, again, the 
 telescope shows, not luminous points, but extended 
 masses of dilute light, hke bright clouds, hence called 
 nehulce. Some have supposed (as we have noticed m 
 the last book) that such nebulae by further condensation 
 might become suns ; but for sucli opinions we have 
 notliing but conjecture. Some stars again have under- 
 gone permanent changes; or have absolutely disap- 
 peai-ed, as the celebrated star of 1572, in the constella- 
 tion Cassiopeia. 
 
 If we taive the whole range of created objects in our 
 own system, from the sun down to the smallest animal- 
 cule, and suppose such a system, or sometliing in some 
 way analogous to it, to be repeated for each of the 
 millions of stars which the telescope reveals to us, we 
 obtam a representation of the material imiverse ; at 
 least a representation which to many persons appears 
 the most probable one. And if we contemplate this 
 aggregate of systems as the work of a Creator, which 
 in om^ own system we have found ourselves so irre- 
 sistibly led to do, we obtain a sort of estimate of the 
 extent through which liis creative energy may be traced, 
 by taldng tlie widest view of the universe which our 
 faculties have attained. 
 
 If we consider fui-ther the endless and admirable 
 contrivances and adaptations which philosophers and 
 observers have discovered in every portion of our own 
 
 VASTNESS OF THE UNIVEESE. 
 
 235 
 
 system ; every new step of ovir knowledge showing us 
 something new in this respect ; and if we combine this 
 consideration with tlie thought how small a portion of 
 the universe our knowledge includes, we shaJI, without 
 being able at all to discern the extent of the skill and 
 Avisdom displayed in the creation, see something of tlie 
 character of the design, and of the copiousness and 
 amplenesss of the means which the scheme of the world 
 exhibits. And when we see that tlie tendency of all 
 the arrangements which we can comprehend is to sup- 
 port the existence, to develope the faculties, to promote 
 the w^ell-being of these countless species of creatures ; 
 we shall have some impression of the beneficence and 
 love of the Creator, as manifested m the physical 
 government of his creation. 
 
 II. It is extremely difficult to devise any means of 
 bringing before a common apprehension the scale 
 on which the universe is constructed, tlie enormous 
 proportion which the larger dimensions bear to the 
 smaller, and the aniazmg number of steps from larger 
 to smaller, or from small to larger, which th«i consider- 
 ation of it offers. The following comparative repre- 
 sentations may serve to give the reader to whom the 
 subject is new some idea of these steps. 
 
 If we suppose the earth to be represented by a globe 
 a foot ui diameter, the distance of the sur from the 
 earth will be about two miles ; the diameter of the sun, 
 on the same supposition, will be something; above one 
 hundred feet, and consequently his bulk such as might 
 be made up of two hemispheres, each about the size of 
 the dome of St. Paul's. The moon wiU be thirty feet 
 
 w 
 
 ii 
 
236 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 from US, and her diameter three inches, about that of a 
 cricket hall. Thus the sun would much more than 
 occupy all the space within the moon's orbit. On the 
 same scale, Jupiter would be above ten miles from the 
 sun, and Uranus forty. We see then how thinly 
 scattered through space are the heavenly bodies. The 
 fixed stars would be at an unknown distance, but, pro- 
 bably, if all distances were thus diminished, no star 
 would be nearer to such a one -foot earth, than the 
 moon now is to us. 
 
 On such a terrestrial globe the highest mountains 
 would be about l-SOth of an inch high, and consequently 
 only just distinguishable. We may imagine therefore 
 how imperceptible would be the largest animals. The 
 whole organised covering of such "an earth would be 
 quite undiscoverable by the eye, except perhaps by 
 colour, like the bloom on a plum. 
 
 In order to restore the earth and its inhabitants to 
 their true dimensions, we must magnify the length, 
 breadth, and thickness of every part of our supposed 
 models forty miUions of times ; and to preserve the 
 proportions, we must increase equally the distances of 
 the sun and of the stars from us. They seem thus to 
 pass off into infinity ; yet each of them thus removed, 
 has its system of mechanical and perhaps of organic 
 processes going on upon its surface. 
 
 ^ But the arrangements of organic life which we can see 
 with the naked eye are few, compared with those which 
 the microscope detects. We know that we may mag- 
 nify objects thousands of times, and still discover fresh 
 complexities of structure ; if we suppose, therefore. 
 
 VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 237 
 
 that we thus magnify eveiy member of the universe and 
 every particle of matter of which it consists ; we may 
 imagine that we make perceptible to our senses the 
 vast multitude of organised adaptations which lie hid 
 on every side of us ; and in this manner w€; approach 
 towards an estimate of the extent through which we may 
 trace the power and skill of the Creator, by scTutinising 
 his work with the utmost subtlety of our faculties. 
 
 III. The other numerical quantities which we have 
 to consider in the i)henomena of the univers<i are on as 
 gigantic a scale as the distances and sizes. By the 
 rotation of the earth on its axis, the pai*ts of the equator 
 move at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and the 
 poi-tions of the earth's surface which are in our 
 latitude, at about six hundred. The former velocity is 
 nearly that with which a cannon ball is discharged 
 from the mouth of a gun; but, large as it is, it is 
 inconsiderable compared with the velocity oi' the earth 
 in its orbit about the sun. This latter velocity is sixty- 
 five times the former. By the rotatory motion of the 
 earth, a point of its surface is carried sometimes for- 
 wards and sometimes backwards with regard to the 
 annual progression ; but in consequence of the great 
 predominance of the annual motion in amomit, the 
 diurnal scarcely affects it either way in any appreciable 
 degree. And even the velocity of the earth in her 
 orbit is inconsiderable compared with that of light; 
 which comparison, however, we shall not make; since, 
 according to the theory we have considered as most 
 probable, the motion of light is not a transfer of matter 
 but of motion from one ]mrt of space to another. 
 
238 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 The extent of the scale of density of different sub- 
 stances has already been mentioned ; gold is twenty 
 times as heavy as water ; air is eight hundred and 
 thirty tnnes lighter, steam eight thousand times lighter 
 than water; the luminiferous ether is incomparably 
 rarer than steam : and this is true of the matter of 
 light, whether we adopt the undulatory theoiy or any 
 other. 
 
 IV. The above estimates are vast in amount, and 
 almost oppressive to our faculties. They belong to the 
 measurement of the powers which are exerted in the 
 muverse, and of the spaces through which their efficacy 
 reaches (for the most distant bodies are probably con- 
 nected both by gravity and light). But these estimates 
 cannot be said so much to give us any notion of the 
 powers of the Deity, as to correct the errors we should 
 fall uito by supposing his powers to have any limits 
 like those which belong to our faculties :— by supposing 
 that numbers, and spaces, and forces, and combinations, 
 which would overwhelm us, are any obstacle to the 
 arrangements which his plan requires. We can easily 
 understand that to an inteUigence smi)assing ours in 
 degree only, that may be easy which is impossible to 
 us. The child who cannot count bevond four the 
 savage who has no name for any number above' five 
 cannot comprehend tlie possibility of deahng with 
 thousands and millions : yet a little additional develop- 
 ment of the intellect makes such numbers conceivable 
 and manageable. The difficulty which appears to 
 reside m numbers and magnitudes and stages of sub- 
 ordmation, is one produced by judging from ourselves 
 
 VxiSTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE, 
 
 239 
 
 — by measuring with our own sounding line ; when 
 that reaches no bottom, the ocean appears unfathomable. 
 Yet in fact how is a hundred millions of miles a great 
 distance ? how is a hundred millions of times a great 
 ratio? Not in itself; this greatness is no quality of 
 the numbers which can be xiroved like their mathe- 
 matical properties ; on the contrary, all that absolutely 
 belongs to number, space, and ratio, must, we know 
 demonstrably, be equally true of the largest and the 
 smallest. It is clear that the greatness of these ex- 
 pressions of measure has reference to our faculties only. 
 Our astonishment and embarrassment take fca* granted 
 the limits of our own nature. We have a tendency to 
 treat a difference of degree and of addition, as if it 
 were a difference of kind and of transformation. The 
 existence of the attributes, design, power, goodness, is 
 a matter depending on obvious gi'ounds : about these 
 qualities there can be no mistake : if we can know any- 
 thing, we can know these attributes when we see them. 
 But the extent, tlie limits of such attributes must be 
 determined b}^ their effects ; our knowledge of tlieir 
 limits by what we see of the effects. Nor is any 
 extent, any amount of power and goodness impro- 
 bable beforehand : we know that these must be great, 
 we cannot tell how great. W^e should not expect 
 beforehand to find them bounded ; and therefore when 
 the boundless prospect opens before us, "we may be 
 bewildered, but we have no reason to be shaken in 
 our conviction of the reality of the cause from which 
 their effects proceed : we may feel ourselves incapable 
 of following the train of thought, and may stop, but 
 
240 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 we have no rational motive for quitting the point 
 which we have thus attained in tracing the Divine 
 Perfections. 
 
 On the contrar}^ those magnitudes and proportions 
 which leave our powers of conception far behind ; — that 
 ever-expanding view wliich is brought before us, of the 
 scale and mechanism, the riches and magnificence, the 
 population and activity of the universe ; — may reason- 
 ably serve, not to disturb, but to enlarge and elevate 
 our conceptions of the Maker and Master of all ; to 
 feed an ever-growing admiration of His wonderful 
 nature ; and to excite a desire to be able to con- 
 template more steadily and conceive less inadequately 
 the scheme of his government and the operation of his 
 power. 
 
 Chap. III. — On Man's Place hi the Universe. 
 
 The mere aspect of the starry heavens, without 
 taking into account the view of them to which science 
 introduces us, tends strongly to force upon man the 
 impression of his own insignificance. The vault of the 
 sky arched at a vast and imknown distance over our 
 heads ; the stars, apparently infinite in number, each 
 keeping its appointed place and course, and seeming 
 to belong to a wide system of things wliich has no 
 relation to the earth ; while man is but one among 
 many millions of the earth's inhabitants; — all tliis 
 makes the contemplative spectator feel how exceedingly 
 small a portion of the universe he is ; how little he 
 must be, in the eyes of an intelligence which can 
 embrace the whole. Every person, in every age and 
 
 MAN S PLACE IN THE UNIVEKSE. 
 
 241 
 
 country, will recognise as irresistibly natural the train 
 of thought expressed by the Hebrew psahnist : " Wlien 
 I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands — the 
 moon and the stars which thou hast ordained — Lord, 
 what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of 
 man that thou regardest him ? " 
 
 If this be the feeling of the untaught person, w^hen 
 he contemplates the aspect of the skies, such as they 
 offer themselves to a casual and unassisted glance, the 
 impression must needs be incalculably augmented, 
 when we look at the universe with the aid of astrono- 
 mical discovery and theory. We then find, that a few 
 of the shining points which we see scattered on the 
 face of the sky in such profusion, appear to be of the 
 same nature as the earth, and may perhaps, as analogy 
 would suggest, be like the earth, the habitations of 
 organised beings; — that the rest of "the host of 
 heaven " may, by a lilve analogy, be conjectured to be 
 the centres of similar systems of revolving worlds ; — 
 that the vision of man has gone travelling onwards, to 
 an extent never anticipated, through this multitude of 
 sj^stems, and that while myriads of new cesntres start 
 up at every advance, he appears as yet not to have 
 received any intimation of a limit. Every person pro- 
 bably feels, at first, lost, confounded, overwhelmed, 
 with the vastness of this spectacle ; and seems to him- 
 self, as it were, annihilated by the magnitude and 
 multitude of the objects which thus cc>mpose the 
 universe. The distance between him and the Creator 
 of the world appears to be increased beyoud measure 
 by this disclosure. It seems as if a single individual 
 
242 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 could have no chance and no claim for the regard of 
 the Ruler of the whole. 
 
 The mode in which the belief of God's government 
 of the physical world is important and interesting to 
 man, is, as has already been said, through the con- 
 nexion which this belief has with the conviction of 
 God's government of the moral world; this latter 
 government being, from its nature, one which has a 
 personal relation to each individual, his actions and 
 thoughts. It will, therefore, illustrate our subject to 
 show tliat this impression of the difficulty of a personal 
 superintendence and government, exercised by the 
 Maker of the world over each of his rational and free 
 creatures, is fomided upon illusory views ; and that on 
 an attentive and philosophical examination of the 
 subject, such a government is in accordance with all 
 that we can discover of the scheme and the scale of the 
 universe. 
 
 I. We may, in the first place, repeat the observation 
 made in the last chapter, on the confusion which some- 
 times arises m our minds, and makes us consider the 
 number of the objects of the Divine care as a difficulty 
 in tlie way of its exercise. If we can conceive this 
 care employed on a million persons — on the population 
 of a kingdom, of a city, of a street — there is no real 
 difficulty in supposing it extended to every planet in 
 the solar system, admitting each to be peopled as ours 
 is ; nor to every part of the universe, supposmg each 
 star the centre of such a system. Large numbers have 
 no peculiar attributes which distinguish them from 
 small ones ; and when we disregard the common limits 
 
 .•' 
 
 MAN S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 243 
 
 of our own faculties, wliich, though impoilant to us, 
 can have no application to the Divine natur»3, it is quite 
 as allowable to suppose a milHon milHons of earths, as 
 one, to be under the moral government of God. 
 
 II. In the next place we may remark, not only that 
 no reason can be assigned why the Divine care should 
 not extend to a much greater number of individuals 
 than we at first imagine, but that in fact Wi3 know that 
 it does so extend. It has been weU observed, that 
 about tlie same time when the invention of the tele- 
 scope showed us that there might be myriads of other 
 worlds claiming the Creator's care ; the ravention of 
 the microscope proved to us that there were in our own 
 world myriads of creatures, before unknown, whicli this 
 care was preserving. While one discovery seemed to 
 remove the Divine Providence further from us, the 
 other gave us most striking examples that it was far 
 more active in our neighbourhood than we had sup- 
 posed : while the first extended the boimdaries of God's 
 known kingdom, the second made its knoTvii adminis- 
 tration more minute and careful. It appeared that in 
 the leaf and in the bud, in solids and in fluids, animals 
 existed hitherto unsuspected ; the apparently dead 
 masses and blank spaces of the world were found to 
 swarm with life. And yet, of the animals thus revealed, 
 all, though unknown to us before, had never been for- 
 gotten by Providence. Their structure, tlieir vessels 
 and hmbs, their .adaptation to their situation, their 
 food and habitations, were regulated in as beautiful 
 and complete a manner as those of the largest and 
 apparently most favoured animals. The smallest 
 
 R 2 
 
Il 
 
 I" ' 
 
 244 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 insects are as exactly finislied, often as gaily orna- 
 mented, as the most gTaceful beast or the birds of 
 brightest plumage. And when we seem to go out of 
 the domain of the complex animal structure with 
 which we are famihar, and come to animals of appa- 
 rently more scanty faculties, and less developed powers 
 of enjoyment and action, we still find that their 
 
 - faculties and tlieir senses are in exact harmony with 
 their situation and circumstances; that the wmnts 
 which they have are provided for, and the powers 
 which they possess called into activity. So that 
 
 PMiiller, the patient and accurate observer of the 
 smallest and most obscure microscopical animalcula, 
 declares that all classes alike, those which have mani- 
 fest organs, and those which have not, offer a vast 
 quantity of ncAV and striking views of the animal 
 €Conomy ; every step of our discoveries leading us to 
 admire the design and care of the Creator." We find, 
 therefore, that the Divine Providence is, in fact, 
 capable of extending itself adequately to an immense 
 succession of tribes of beings, surpassing what we 
 can image or could previously have anticipated ; and 
 thus we may feel secure, so far as analogy can secure 
 us, that the mere multitude of created objects cannot 
 remove us from the government and superintendence 
 
 i: 
 
 of the Creator. 
 
 III. We may observe further, that, vast as are the 
 parts and proportions of the universe, we still appear 
 to be able to perceive that it is finite ; the subordination 
 of magnitudes and numbers and classes aj)pears to have 
 
 • Muller, Infusoria, Preface. 
 
 
 man's place in the UNIVERSE. 245 
 
 its limits. Thus, for anything which we can discover, \ 
 the sun is the largest body in the universe ; and at any 
 rate, bodies of the order of the sun are the largest of 
 which we have any evidence : we know of no substances 
 denser than gold and platinum, and it is improbable that 
 any denser, or at least much denser, slioidd ever be 
 detected : the largest animals which exist in the sea and 
 on the earth are almost certainly known to us. We may 
 venture also to say, that the smallest animals wliich pos- 
 sess in their structure a clear analogy with larger ones, 
 have been already seen. Many of the animals wliich 
 the microscope detects are as complete and complex in 
 their organisation as those of larger size : but beyond 
 a certain point, they appear, as they become more 
 minute, to be reduced to a homogeneity and simx)licity 
 of composition which almost excludes them from the 
 domain of animal life. The smallest microscopical 
 objects which can be supposed to be organic, are 
 points,* or gelatinous globules,! or threads,! in which 
 no distinct organs, interior or exterior, can be dis- 
 covered. These, it is clear, cannot be considered as 
 indicating an indefinite progression of animal life in a 
 descending scale of minuteness. We can, mathemati- 
 cally speaking, conceive one of these animals as perfect 
 and complicated in its structure as an elei)hant or an 
 eagle, but we do not find it so in nature. It appears, 
 <ui the contrary, in these objects, as if we were, at a 
 certain point of magnitude, reaching the boundaries of 
 the animal world. We need not here consider the 
 
 Monas. Miiller. Cuvier. 
 
 i Vibrio. Muller. 
 
 t Yolvox, 
 
 Cuvier. 
 
246 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 hypothesis and opinions to which these ambiguous 
 objects have given rise ; but without any theory, 
 they tend to show that the subordination of organic 
 life is finite on the side of the little as well as of the 
 great. 
 
 Some persons might perhaps imagine that a ground 
 for believing the smallness of organised beings to be 
 limited, might be found in what we know of the consti- 
 tution of matter. If solids and fluids consist of 
 particles of a definite, thougli exceeding smallness, 
 which cannot further be divided or diminished, it is 
 manifest that we have, in the smallness of these par- 
 ticles, a limit to the possible size of the vessels and 
 organs of animals. The fluids Avhich are secreted, and 
 which circulate in the body of a mite, must needs con- 
 sist of a vast number of particles, or they would not be 
 fluids : and an animal might be so much smaller than 
 a mite, that its tubes could not contain a sufficient col- 
 lection of the atoms of matter, to carry on its functions. 
 We should, therefore, of necessity reach a limit of 
 minuteness in organic life, if we could demonstrate 
 that matter is composed of such indivisible atoms. We 
 shall not, however, build anything on this argument ; 
 because, though the ntntnip jy^ory i^ sometimes said t(^ 
 be proved, what is proved is, that chemical and other 
 efl^ects take place as if they were the aggi'egate of the 
 effects of certain particles of different elements, the 
 jv'opor'tions of which particles are fixed and definite ; 
 but that any limit can be assigned to the smallness of 
 these particles, has never yet been made out. We 
 prefer, therefore, to rest the proof of the finite extent of 
 
 ^.7 
 
 MAN S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 247 
 
 animal life, as to size, on the microscopical observations 
 I)reviously referred to. 
 
 Probably we cannot yet be said to have reached the 
 limit of the universe with the power of our telescopes ; 
 that is, it does not appear that telescopes have yet been 
 used, so powerful in exhibiting small stars, that we can 
 assume that more powerful instruments would not dis- 
 cover new stars. Whether or no, however, this degree 
 of perfection has been reached, we have no proof that , 
 it does not exist ; if it were once obtained, we should 
 have, with some approximation, the limit of the uni- 
 verse as to the number of worlds, as w^e hav^e akeady 
 endeavoured to show we have obtained the limits w^ith 
 regard to the largeness and smallness of the inhabitants 
 of our own world. 
 
 In like manner, although the discovery of mew species 
 in some of the kingdoms of nature has gone on recently 
 with enormous rapidity, and to an immense extent ; — 
 for instance, in botany, where the species known in the 
 time of Linnaeus were about 10,000, and are now^ above 
 100,000 ; — there can be no doubt that the Qumber of 
 species and genera is really limited ; and though a 
 great extension of our knowledge is required to reach 
 these limits, it is our ignorance merely, and not their 
 non-existence, which removes them from us. 
 
 In the same way it would appear that the universe, 
 so far as it is an object of our laiowledge, is finite in 
 other respects also. Now when we have once attained 
 this conviction, all the oppressive apprehensiim of bemg 
 overlooked in the government of the universe has no 
 longer any rational source. For in the superintendence 
 
248 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 of a finite system of things, what is there which can 
 ajDpear difficult or overwhelming to a Being such as we 
 must, from what we know, conceive the Creator to be? 
 Difficulties arising from space, number, gradation, are 
 such as we can conceive ourselves capable of overcoming', 
 merely by an extension of our present faculties. Is it 
 not then easy to imagine that such difficulties must 
 vanish before Him who made us and our faculties ? 
 Let it be considered how enormous a proportion the 
 largest work of man bears to the smallest ;— -the great 
 pyramid to the point of a needle. This comparison 
 does not overwhelm us, because we know that man has 
 made both. Yet the difference between this proportion 
 and that of the sun to the claw of a mite, does not at all 
 correspond to the difference which we must suppose 
 to obtain between the Creator and the creature. It 
 appears then that, if the first flash of that view of the 
 universe wliich science reveals to us, does sometimes 
 dazzle and bewilder men, a more attentive examination 
 of the prospect, by the light we thus obtain, shows us 
 how unfounded is the despair of our being the objects 
 of Divine Providence, how absurd the persuasion that 
 we have discovered the universe to be too large for its 
 ruler. 
 
 IV. Another ground of satisfactory reflection, having 
 the same tendency, is to be found in the admii^able 
 order and consistency, the subordination and proportion 
 of parts, which we find to prevail in the universe, as 
 far as om- discoveries reach. We have, it may be, a 
 multitude almost innumerable of worlds, but no symp- 
 tom of crowding, of confusion, of interference. All 
 
 man's place in the universe. 
 
 249 
 
 such defects are avoided by the manner in w hich these 
 worlds are distributed into systems ; — these systems, 
 each occupying a vast space, but yet disposed at dis- 
 tances before which their own dimensions shrink into 
 insignificance ; — all governed by one law, yet this law 
 so concentrating its operation on each system, that 
 each proceeds as if there were no other, and so regu- 
 lating its own effects that perpetual change produces 
 permanent uniformitj^ This is the kind of harmonious 
 relation which we perceive in that part of the universe, 
 the mechanical part namely, the laws of whi(*h are best 
 known to us. In other provinces, where our knowledge 
 is more imperfect, we can see glimpses of a similar 
 vastness of combination, producing, by its very nature, 
 completeness of detail. Any analogy by which we can 
 extend such views to the moral world, must be of a 
 very Avide and indefinite kind ; yet the contemplation 
 of this admii-able relation of the arrangements of the 
 physical creation, and the perfect working of their laws, 
 is well calculated to give us confidence in a similar 
 beauty and perfection in the arrangements by which 
 our moral relations are directed, our higher powers 
 and hopes unfolded. We may readily believe that 
 there is, in this pai-t of the creation also, an order, a 
 subordination of some relations to others, which may 
 remove all difficulty arising from the vast multitude of 
 moral agents and actions, and make it possible that 
 the superintendence of the moral world shall be dii-ected 
 with as exact a tendency to moral good, as that by 
 which the government of the physical world is directed 
 to physical good. 
 
I'i 
 
 260 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 We may perhaps see gUmpses of such an order, in 
 the arrangements by which om- highest and most 
 important duties depend upon our relation to a smaU 
 circle of persons immediately around us : and again, 
 in the manner in wliich our acting well or ill results 
 from the operation of a few prmciples withm us ; as 
 om- conscience, our desii^e of moral excellence, and of 
 the favour of God. We can hardly consider such prin- 
 ciples otherwise than as intended to occupy their 
 proper place in the system by which man's destination 
 IS to be determined ; and thus, as among the means of 
 the government and superintendence of God in the 
 moral world. 
 
 That there must be an order and a system to which 
 such regulative principles belong, the whole analogy of 
 creation compels us to believe. It would be strange 
 mdeed, if, while the mechanical world, the system of 
 inert matter, is so arranged that we cannot contemplate 
 its order without an elevated inteUectual pleasure ;— 
 whHe organised life has no faculties without their pro- 
 per scope, no tendencies without their appointed object; 
 —the rational faculties and moral tendencies of man 
 should belong to no systematic order, should operate 
 with no correspondmg purpose : that, while the per- 
 ception of sweet and bitter has its acknowledged and 
 unquestionable uses, the universal perception of right 
 and wrong, the unconquerable behef of the merit'^of 
 certam feehngs and actions, the craving alike after 
 moral advancement and after the means of attaining it, 
 should exist only to delude, perplex, and disappoint 
 man. No one, with his contemplations calmed and 
 
 I 
 
 
 ..-^ 
 
 MA^ S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 251 
 
 filled and harmonised by the view of the laiown con- 
 stitution of the universe, its machinery " wheeling 
 unshaken " in the farthest skies and in the darkest 
 cavern, its vital spirit breathing alike effectively in the 
 veins of the philosopher and the worm ; — no one, under 
 the influence of such a train of contemplations, can 
 possibly admit into his mind a persuasion wliich makes 
 the moral part of our nature a collection of inconsistent 
 and futile impressions, of idle dreams and warring 
 opinions, each having the same claims to om' accept- 
 ance. Wide as is the distance between the material 
 and the moral world ; imperfect as all reasonings 
 necessarily are which attempt to carry the inferences of 
 one mto the other ; elevated above the region of matter 
 as all the principles and grounds of tiiith must be, 
 which belong to our responsibilities and hopes; still 
 the astronomical and natural philosopher can hardly 
 fail to draw from their studies an imperturbable con- 
 viction that our moral nature cannot correspond to 
 those representations according to which it has no law, 
 coherency, or object. The mere natural reasoner maj^ or 
 must, stop far short of all that it is his highest interest 
 to know, his first duty to pursue ; but even he, if he 
 take any elevated and comprehensive views of his own 
 subject, must escape from the opinions, as unphiloso- 
 phical as they are comfortless, which would expel from 
 om* view of the world all reference to duty and moral 
 good, all reliance on the most universal j^'ounds of 
 trust and hope. 
 
 Men's belief of their duty, and of the I'easons for 
 practising it, connected as it is with the con^riction of a 
 
'"-^T'WtfraiTTTr 
 
 252 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 personal relation to their Maker, and of His power of 
 superintendence and reward, is as manifest a fact in 
 the moral, as any that can he pointed out is in the 
 natural world. By the mere analog}^ which has heen 
 intimated, therefore, we cannot but conceive that this 
 fact belongs in some manner or other to the order of 
 the moral world, and of its government. 
 
 When any one acknowledges a moral governor of the 
 world ; perceives that domestic and social relations are 
 perpetually operating and seem intended to operate, to 
 retain and direct men in the ' path of duty ; and feels 
 that the voice of conscience, the peace of heart which 
 results from a course of virtue, and the consolations of 
 devotion, are ever ready to assume their office as our 
 guides and aids in the conduct of all our actions:— he 
 will probably be wilHng to acknowledge also that the 
 means of a moral government of each individual are 
 not wanting; and will no longer be oppressed or 
 distui-bed by the apprehension that the superin- 
 tendence of the world may be too difficult for its 
 Euler, and that any of His subjects and servants may 
 be overlooked. He mil no more fear that the moral 
 than that the physical laws of God's creation should be 
 forgotten in any particular case : and as he knows that 
 every sparrow which falls to the ground contains in its 
 structm-e innumerable marks of the Divine care and 
 kindness, he mil be persuaded that every man, however 
 apparently humble and insignificant, will have his 
 moral being dealt with according to the laws of God's 
 wisdom and love ; will be enlightened, supported, and 
 raised, if he use the appointed means which God's 
 
 LAW IMPLIES MIND. 
 
 253 
 
 administration of the world of moral light and good 
 offers to his use. 
 
 Chap. IV. — On the Impression produced hy the Contemplation of Lmcs 
 of Nature ; or on the Conviction that Laic implies Mind. 
 
 The various trains of thought and reasoning which 
 lead men from a consideration of the natural world to 
 the conviction of the existence, the power, the provi- 
 dence of God, do not require, for the most pai't, soiy 
 long or laboured deduction, to give them their effect on 
 the mind. On the contrary, they have, in every age 
 and country, produced their impression on multitudes 
 who have not instituted any formal reasonings upon 
 the subject, and probably upon many who have not put 
 their conclusions in the shape of any express proposi- 
 tions. The persuasion of a superior intelligence and 
 will, which manifests itself in every part of the material 
 world, is, as is well known, so widely diffused and 
 deeply infixed, as to have made it a question among 
 speculative men whether the notion of such a power is 
 not universal and innate. It is our business to show 
 only how plainly and how universally such a belief 
 results from the study of the appearances about us. 
 That in many nations, in many periods, tliis persuasion 
 has been mixed up with much that was erroneous and 
 perverse in the opinions of the intellect or the fictions 
 of the fancy, does not weaken the force of such consent. 
 The belief of a supernatural and presiding ])ower runs 
 through all these errors : and while the perversions are 
 manifestly the work of caprice and illusion, and vanish 
 
254 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 at the first ray of sober inquir}', the belief itself is 
 substantial aud consistent, and gi^ows in strength upon 
 every new examination. It was the firmness and 
 solidity of the conviction of something Divine which 
 gave a hold and permanence to the figments of so 
 many false divinities. And those w^ho have traced the 
 progress of human thought on other subjects, will not 
 think it strange, that while the fundamental persuasion 
 of a Deity was thus iiTemovably seated in the human 
 mind, the development of this conception into a con- 
 sistent, pure, and steadfast belief in one Almiditv and 
 Holy Father and God, should be long missed, or never 
 attained, by the struggle of the human faculties ; should 
 require long reflection to mature it, and the aid of 
 revelation to establish it in the world. 
 
 The view of the universe which we have principally 
 had occasion to i^resent to the reader, is that in which 
 we consider its appearances as reducible to certain 
 fixed and general laws. Availing ourselves of some 
 of the lights which modern science supplies, we have 
 endeavoured to show that the adaptation of such laws 
 to each other, and their fitness to promote the harmo- 
 nious and beneficial course of the world, may be traced, 
 wherever we can discover the laws themselves; and 
 that the conceptions of the Divine Power, Goodness 
 and Superintendence which we thus form, agree in a 
 remarkable manner with the views of the Supreme 
 Being, to which reason, enlightened by the divine 
 revelation, has led. 
 
 But we conceive that the general impressions of 
 mankind would go further than a mere assent to the 
 
 LAW IMPLIES MIND. 
 
 255 
 
 argument as we have thus stated it. To most persons 
 it appears that the mere existence of a law connecting 
 and governing any class of phenomena, impHes a 
 presiding intelhgence which has preconceived and 
 established the law. When events are rejgulated by 
 precise rules of time and space, of number and mea- 
 sure, men conceive these rules to be the evidence of 
 thought and mind, even without discovering in the 
 rules any pecuHar adaptations, or without su]3posing 
 their purpose to be known. 
 
 The origin and the validity of such an im])ression on 
 the human mind may appear to some matters of abstruse 
 and doubtful speculation : yet the tendency to such a 
 belief prevails strongly and widely, both among the 
 common class of minds whose thoughts are casually 
 and unsystematic ally turned to such subjects, and 
 among philosophers to whom laws of natm-t; are habi- 
 tual subjects of contemplation. We conceive therefore 
 that such a tendency may deserve to be briefly illus- 
 trated ; and we trust also that some attention to this 
 point may be of service m throwmg light upon the true 
 relation of the study of nature to the belief in God. 
 
 I. A very slight attention shows us how resadily order 
 and regularity suggest to a common apprehension the 
 operation of a calm and untroubled intelligence presiding 
 over the course of events. Thus the materialist poet, 
 in accounting for the belief in the Gods, though he 
 does not share it, cannot deny the habitual effect of 
 this manifestation. 
 
 Preeterea cocli rationes online cerfo 
 
 Et vtcria annonim cemebant tcmpora vorti ; 
 
256 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 Nee poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere caussis. 
 Ergo perfugium sibi habebant omnia Divis 
 Tradere et illorum nutu facere omnia flecti. 
 
 Ltjcbet. v. 1182. 
 
 Tbey saw the skies in constant order run, 
 The varied seasons and the circling sun, 
 Apparent mle, with unapparent cause, 
 And thus they sought in Gods the source of law.s. 
 
 The same feeling may be traced in the early mytho- 
 logy of a large portion of the globe. We might easily, 
 taking advantage of the labours of learned men, exem- 
 pUfy this in the case of the oriental nations of Greece, 
 and of many other countries. Nor does there appear 
 much difficulty in pointing out the error of those who 
 have maintained that all religion had its origin hi the 
 worship of the stars and the elements ; and who have 
 insinuated that all such impressions are unfounded, 
 inasmuch as these are certainly not right objects of 
 human worship. The religious feeling, the conviction 
 of a supernatm-al power, of an intelHgence connecting 
 and directing the phenomena of the worid, had not its 
 origin in the worship of sun, or stars, or elements ; but 
 was itself the necessary though unexpressed foundation 
 of all worship, and all forms of false, as well as true, 
 rehgion. The contemplation of the earth and heavens 
 called into action tliis religious tendency m man ; and 
 to say that the worship of the material worid formed or 
 suggested this rehgious feeling, is to invert the order 
 of possible things in the most unphilosophical manner. 
 Idolatry is not the source of the belief in God, but 
 is a compound of the persuasion of a supernatural 
 
 LAW IMPLIES MIND. 
 
 257 
 
 government, with certain extravagant and baseless con- 
 ceptions, as to the manner m which this government 
 is exercised. 
 
 We will quote a passage from an author who has 
 illustrated at considerable length the hypothesis that 
 all religious behef is derived from the worship of the 
 elements. 
 
 " Light, and darkness its perpetual contrast ; the 
 succession of days and nights, the periodical order of 
 the seasons ; the career of the brilliant luminary which 
 regulates then* com'se ; that of the moon, his sister and 
 rival; night, and the innumerable fires wliich she 
 lights in the blue vault of heaven ; the revolutions of 
 the stars, which exhibit them for a longer or a shorter 
 period above our horizon ; the constancy of this period 
 in the fixed stars, its variety in the wandering stars, 
 the planets ; their direct and retrograde course, theu' 
 momentary rest ; the phases of the moon w^axing, full, 
 waning, divested of all Hght ; the progressive motion of 
 the sun upwards, downwards ; the successive order of 
 the rising and setting of the fixed stars, wliich mark the 
 different points of the course of the sun, while the 
 various aspects which the earth itself assuiries, mark, 
 here below also, the same periods of the sun's annual 
 motion; .... all these different pictures, displayed 
 before the eyes of man, form the great and magnificent 
 spectacle by which I suppose him surrounded at the 
 moment when he is about to create his gods.'' * 
 
 What is this (divested of its wanton levity of expres- 
 sion) but to say, that when man has so far traced tlie 
 
 ♦ Dupuip. Origine des Cultes. 
 
 1 
 
258 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 course of nature as to be irresistibly impressed with 
 the existence of order, law, variety in constancy, and 
 fixity in change ; of relations of form and space, dura- 
 tion and succession, cause and consequence, among the 
 objects which surround him ; there springs up in liis 
 breast, unbidden and irresistibly, the thought of super- 
 intending intelHgence — of a mind which comprehended 
 from the first, and completely, that which he late and 
 partially comes to know ? The worship of earth and 
 sky, of the host of heaven and the influences of nature, 
 is not tlie ultimate and fundamental fact in the early 
 history of the religious impressions of mankind. These 
 are but derivative streams, impure and scanty, from 
 the fountain of religious feehng, which appears to be 
 disclosed to us by the contemplation of the universe 
 as the seat of law and the manifestation of intellect. 
 Time suggests to man the thought of eternity ; space, 
 of infinity ; law, of intelligence ; order, of purpose ; and 
 however difficult and long a task it may be to develope 
 these suggestions into clear convictions, these thoughts 
 are the real parents of our natural rehgious belief. 
 The only relation between true rehgion and the wor- 
 ship of the elemental world is, that the latter is the 
 partial and gross perversion, the former the consistent 
 and pure developement of the same original idea. 
 
 II. The connexion of the laws of the material world 
 with an intelligence which preconceived and instituted 
 the law, which is thus, as we perceive, so generally 
 impressed on the common apprehension of mankind, 
 has also struck no less those who have studied nature 
 with a more systematic attention, and with the peculiar 
 
 LAW IMPLIES MIND. 
 
 259 
 
 ^aews which belong to science. The laws wMch such 
 persons learn and study, seem, indeed, most naturaUy 
 to lead to the conviction of an inteUigence which ori- 
 ginally gave to eacli law its form. 
 
 What we caU a general law is, in truth, a form of 
 expression including a number of facts of B:e kind. 
 The facts are separate ; the unity of view by which we 
 associate them, the character of generality and of law, 
 resides in those relations which are the object of the 
 intellect. The law once apprehended by us, takes in 
 our mmds the place of the facts themselves, and is said 
 to govern or determine them, because it det(irmines 
 our anticipations of what they will be. But ^v^e can- 
 not. It would seem, conceive a law, founded on such 
 intelligible relations, to govern and determme tlie facts 
 themselves, any othenvdse than by supposing also an 
 mteUigence by which these relations are contemplated, 
 and these consequences reahsed. We cannot then 
 represent to ourselves the universe governed by general 
 laws, otherwise than by conceiving an intelligent and 
 conscious Deity, by whom these laws were ori-inallv 
 contemplated, established, and applied. 
 
 This perhaps will appear more clear, when it is 
 considered that the laws of which we speak are often 
 ot an abstruse and complex kind, depending upon 
 relations of space, time, number, and other properties, 
 which we perceive by great attention and thought. 
 Ihese relations are often combined so variously and 
 curiously, that the most subtle reasonings and calcu- 
 lations which we can form axe requisite, in order to 
 trace their results. Can such laws be conceived to 
 
 s 2 
 
I 
 
 260 
 
 HELIGIOUS VIEWS, 
 
 be instituted without any exercise of knowledge and 
 intelligence ? can material objects apply geometry and 
 calculation to themselves ? can the lenses of the eye, 
 for instance, be formed and adjusted with an exact 
 suitableness to their refractive powers, while there is 
 in the agency which has framed them no consciousness 
 of the laws of light, of the course of rays, of the visible 
 properties of things ? This appears to be altogether 
 
 inconceivable. 
 
 Every particle of matter possesses an almost endless 
 train of properties, each acting accordmg to its peculiar 
 and fixed laws. For every atom of the same kind of 
 matter, these laws are invariably and perpetually the 
 same ; while for different kinds of matter, the difference 
 of these properties is equally constant. This constant 
 and precise resemblance, tliis variation equally constant 
 and equally regular, suggest irresistibly the conception 
 of some cause, independent of the atoms themselves, by 
 which their similarity and dissimilarity, the agreement 
 and difference of their deportment under the same 
 circumstances, have been determined. Such a view of 
 tlie constitution of matter, as is observed by an eminent 
 writer of our own time, effectually destroys the idea of 
 its eternal and self- existent nature, "by giving to 
 each of its atoms the essential characters, at once, of a 
 Qjiannfactured article, and a subordinate agent'' * 
 
 That such an impression, and tlie consequent belief 
 in a divine Author of the universe, by whom its laws 
 were ordained and established, does result from the 
 philosophical contemplation of nature, will, we trust, 
 
 ♦ Herschel on the Study of Nat. Phil., Art. 28. 
 
 1^^DUCT1VE HABITS. 
 
 261 
 
 become still more evident by tracing the effect produced 
 upon men's minds by the discovery of such laws and 
 properties as those of which we have been speaking ; 
 and we shall therefore make a few observations on this 
 subject. 
 
 Chap. V. — On Inductive Hcibits ; or, on the Impression produced on 
 Men's minds by discovering Laws of Nature. 
 
 The object of physical science is to disccver such 
 laws and properties as those of wliich we ha\e spoken 
 in the last chapter. In this task, undoubtedly a pro- 
 gress has been made on which we may well look with 
 pleasure and admiration; yet we cannot hesitate to 
 confess that the extent of our knowledge on such 
 subjects bears no proportion to that of our i^^norance. 
 Of the great and comprehensive laws which I'ule over 
 the widest provinces of natural phenomena, few have 
 yet been disclosed to us. And the names of the 
 philosophers, whose high office it has been to detect 
 such laws, are even 3-et far from numerous. In looking 
 back at the path by which science has advanced to its 
 present position, we see the names of the great dis- 
 coverers shine out like luminaries, few and scattered 
 along the line : by far the largest portion of the space 
 is occupied by those whose comparatively humble 
 office it was to verify, to develope, to apply the; general 
 truths which the discoverers brought to light. 
 
 It will readily be conceived that it is no easy matter, 
 if it be possible, to analyse the process of thought by 
 which laws of natm-e have thus been disco\'ered; a 
 process wliich, as we have said, has been in so few 
 
262 
 
 EELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 instances successfully performed. We shall not here 
 make any attempt at such an analysis. But without 
 this, we conceive it may he shown that the constitution 
 and employment of the mind on wliich such discoveries 
 depend, are friendly to that helief in a mse and good 
 Creator and Governor of the world, which it has been 
 our object to illustrate and confirm. And if it should 
 appear that those who see further than their fellows 
 into the bearings and dependencies of the material 
 things and elements by which they are surrounded, 
 have also been, in almost every case, earnest and 
 forward in acknowledging the relation of all things to 
 a supreme intelligence and will, we shall be fortified 
 in our persuasion that the true scientific perception 
 of the general constitution of the miiverse, and of the 
 mode in wliich events are produced and connected, is 
 fitted to lead us to tlie conception and belief of God. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment what takes place in 
 the mind of a student of nature when he attains to the 
 perception of a law previously unknown, connecting 
 the appearances which he has studied. A mass of 
 facts which before seemed incoherent and unmeaning, 
 assume, on a sudden, the aspect of connexion and 
 intelligible order. Thus, when Kepler discovered the 
 law which connects the periodic times with the 
 diameters of the planetary orbits; or, when Newton 
 showed how this and all other known mathematical 
 properties of the solar system were included in the law 
 of universal gravitation according to the inverse square 
 of the distance ; particular circumstances which, before, 
 were merely matter of independent record, became, 
 
 M 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 263 
 
 from tliat time, indissolubly conjoined by th(j laws so 
 discovered. The separate occurrences and facts, which 
 might hitherto have seemed casual and without reason, 
 were now seen to be all exemplifications of the same 
 truth. The cliange is like that wliich takes place when 
 we attempt to read a sentence wiitten in difficult or 
 imperfect characters. For a time the separate parts 
 appear to be disjoined and arbitrary marks ; the 
 suggestions of possible meanings, which succeed each 
 other in the mind, fail, as fast as they are tried, in 
 combining, or accounting for, these sjonbols : but at last 
 the true supposition occurs ; some words are found to 
 coincide with the meaning thus assumed; the whole 
 line of letters appear to take definite shapes and to 
 leap into their proper places; and the truth of the 
 happy conjecture seems to flash upon us from every 
 part of the inscription. 
 
 The discovery of laws of natui'e, truly and satisfac- 
 torily connecting and explaining phenomena, of which, 
 before, the connexion and causes had been imknown, 
 displays much of a similar process, of obscurity 
 succeeded by evidence, of effort and perph'xity fol- 
 lowed by conviction and repose. The innumerable 
 conjectures and failures, the glimpses of light per- 
 petually opening and as often clouded over, by which 
 Kepler was tantalised, the unweaiied persieverance 
 and inexhaustible ingenuity which he exercised, while 
 seeking for the laws which he finally discovered, are, 
 thanks to his communicative disposition, curiously 
 exhibited in his works, and have been narrat<jd by his 
 biographers; and such efforts and alternations, modified 
 
264 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 H< 
 
 by character and circumstances, must generally precede 
 the detection of any of the wider laws and dependencies 
 by which the events of the universe are regulated. We 
 may readily conceive the satisfaction and delight with 
 which, after this perplexity and stniggle, the discoverer 
 finds liimself in hght and tranquillity ; able to look at 
 the province of nature which has been the subject of 
 liis study, and to read there an intelligible connexion, 
 a sufficing reason, which no one before him had under- 
 stood or apprehended. 
 
 This step so much resembles the mode in which 
 one intelligent being understands and apprehends the 
 concex3tions of another, that we cannot be surprised if 
 those persons in w^liose minds such a process has 
 taken place, have been most ready to acknowledge the 
 existence and operation of a superintending intelligence, 
 whose ordinances it was theu- employment to study. 
 When they had just read a sentence of the table of the 
 laws of the universe, they could not doubt whether it 
 had had a legislator. When they had decyphered 
 there a comprehensive and substantial truth, they 
 could not believe that the letters had been thrown 
 together by chance. They could not but readily 
 acknowledge that what their faculties had enabled 
 them to read, must have been written by some higher 
 and profounder mind. And accordingly, we conceive 
 it will be found, on examining the works of those to 
 whom we owe our knowledge of the laws of nature, and 
 especially of the wider and more comprehensive laws, 
 that such persons have been strongly and habitually 
 impressed with the persuasion of a Divine Purpose 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 2,Qd 
 
 and Power which had regulated the events w hich they 
 had attended to, and ordamed the laws which they had 
 detected. 
 
 To those who have pursued science without reacliing 
 the rank of discoverers ; — who have possessed a deri- 
 vative knowledge of the laws of nature which others 
 had disclosed, and have employed themselves in tracuig 
 the consequences of such laws, and systematising the 
 body of truth thus produced, the above description 
 does not apply; and we have not therefore in these 
 cases the same gromid for anticipating the same frame 
 of mind. If among men of science of tliis class, the 
 persuasion of a supreme InteUigence has at some 
 periods been less vivid and less universal, than in that 
 higher class of which we have before spoken, the fact, 
 so far as it has existed, may perhaps be in some degree 
 accounted for. But whether the view which we have 
 to give of the mental peculiarities of men whose science 
 is of this derivative kind be well founded, and whether 
 the account we have above offered of that which takes 
 place in the minds of original discoverers of laws in 
 scientific researches be true or not, it will probably be 
 considered a matter of some interest to point out 
 historically that, in fact, such discoverers have been 
 peculiarly in the habit of considering the world as the 
 work of God. This we shall now proceed to do. 
 
 As we have already said, the names of great dis- 
 coverers are not very numerous. The sciences which 
 we may look upon as having reached or, at least, 
 approached their complete and finished form, are 
 Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Physical Astronomy. 
 
266 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 
 Galileo is the father of modern Mechanics ; Copernicus, 
 Kepler, and Newton are the great names which mark 
 the progress of Astronomy. Hydrostatics shared in a 
 great measure the fortunes of the related science of 
 Mechanics ; Boyle and Pascal were the persons mainly 
 active in developing its more peculiar principles. The 
 otlier branches of knowledge which belong to natural 
 pliilosophy, as Chemistry and Meteorology, are as yet 
 imperfect, and perhaps infant sciences ; and it would 
 be rash to presume to select in them, names of equal 
 pre-eminence with those above mentioned : but it may 
 not be difficult to show, with sufficient evidence, that 
 the effect of science upon the authors of science is, in 
 these subjects as in the former ones, far other than to 
 alienate their minds from religious trains of thought, 
 and a habit of considering the world as the work of God. 
 We shall not dwell much on the first of the above- 
 mentioned great names, Galileo ; for his scientific merit 
 consisted rather in adopting the sound philosophy of 
 others, as in the case of the Copernican system, and 
 in combating prevalent errors, as in the case of the 
 Aristotelian doctrines concerning motion, than in any 
 marked and prominent discovery of new principles. 
 Moreover, the mechanical laws which he had a share 
 in bringing to light — depending, as they did, rather on 
 detached experiments and transient facts than on 
 observation of the general course of the universe — 
 could not so clearly suggest any reflection on the 
 government of the world at that period, as they did 
 afterwards when Newton showed their bearing on 
 the cosmical system. Yet Galileo, as a man of 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 267 
 
 philosophical and inventive mind, who produced a great 
 effect on the progress of physical knowhjdge, is a 
 person whose opinions must naturally interest us, 
 engaged in our present course of reasoning. There is 
 in his writings little which bears upon religious views, 
 as there is in the nature of his works little to lead him 
 to such subjects. Yet strong expressions of piety are 
 not wanting, both in his letters and in his published 
 treatises. The persecution which he und(3rwent, on 
 account of his writings in favour of the (Jopemican 
 system, was grounded, not on his opposition to the 
 general truths of natural religion, which is our main 
 concern at present, nor even on any supposed rejection 
 of any ai'ticles of Christian faith, but on the alleged 
 discrepancy between his adopted astronomical views 
 and the declarations of Scripture. Some of Ms remarks 
 may interest the reader. 
 
 In his third dialogue on the Copernican system he 
 has occasion to speak of the opinion which holds all 
 parts of the world to be framed for man's use alone : 
 and to this he says, " I would that we should not so 
 shorten the arm of God in the government of human 
 affairs ; but that we should rest in this, that we are 
 certain that God and nature are so occupied in the 
 government of human affairs, that they could not more 
 attend to us if they were charged with the care of the 
 human race alone." In the same spirit, when some 
 objected to the asserted smallness of the Medicean 
 stars, or satellites of Jupiter, and urged this as a reason 
 why they were unworthy the regard of philosophers, he 
 replied that they are the works of God's power, the 
 
ill 
 
 268 
 
 IIELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 objects of His care, and therefore may well be con- 
 sidered as sublime subjects for man's study. 
 
 In the Dialogues on Mechanics, there occur those 
 observations concerning the use of the air-bladder in 
 fishes, and concerning the adaptation of the size of 
 animals to the strength of the materials of which they 
 are framed, which have often smce been adopted by 
 writers on the wisdom of Providence. The last of the 
 dialogues on the sj^stem of the w^orld is closed by a 
 religious reflection, put in the mouth of the interlocutor 
 who usually expresses Galileo's own opinions. " While 
 it is permitted us to speculate concerning the constitu- 
 tion of the world, we are also taught (perhai)s in order 
 that the activity of the human mind may not pause or 
 languish) that our powers do not enable us to compre- 
 hend the works of His hands. May success therefore 
 attend this intellectual exercise, thus permitted and 
 apx3ointed for us ; by which we recognise and admire 
 the greatness of God the more, in proportion as we find 
 ourselves the less able to penetrate the x^rofound abysses 
 of his wisdom." And that this train of thought was 
 habitual to the philosopher we have abundant evidence 
 in many other parts of liis writings. He had already 
 said in the same dialogue, "Nature (or God, as lie 
 elsewhere speaks) employs means in an admirable and 
 inconceivable manner; admirable, that is, and incon- 
 ceivable to us, but not to her, who brings about with 
 consummate facility and simplicity things which affect 
 our intellect with infinite astonishment. That which 
 is to us most difficult to understand is to her most easy 
 to execute." 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 269 
 
 The establishment of the Copernican and iN^ewtonian 
 views of the [motions of the solar system and their 
 causes, were probably tiie occasions on which religious 
 but unphilosophical men entertained the strongest 
 apprehensions that the belief in the government of 
 God may be weakened when we thus "thrust some 
 mechanic cause into his place." It is therefore fortu- 
 nate that we can show, not only that this ought not to 
 occur, from the reason of the thing, but also that in 
 fact the persons who are the leading characters in the 
 progress of these opinions were men of clear and 
 fervent piety. 
 
 In the case of Copernicus himself it does not appear 
 that, originally, any apprehensions were entertained of 
 any dangerous discrepancy between his doctrines and 
 the truths of religion, either natural or revealed. The 
 work which contains these memorable discoveries was 
 addressed to Pope Paul III., tlie head, at that time 
 (1543), of the religious world ; and was published, as 
 the author states in the preface, at the urgent entreaty 
 of friends, one of whom was a cardinal, and another a 
 bishop.* " I know," he says, " that the thoughts of a 
 philosopher are far removed from the judgment of the 
 vulgar ; since it is his study to search out truth in all 
 things, as far as that is permitted by God to human 
 
 * Amici me cunctantem atque etiam reluctantem, retraxerant, iuter 
 quos primus fuit Nicolaus Schonbergius, Cardinalis Capuemus, in omni 
 genere literarum Celebris ; proximus ille vir mei amantissimus Tide- 
 mannus Gisius, Episcopus Culmensis, sacranim ut est et omnium 
 bonarum literarum studioaUsimus. — Be JRevolutionibits. Prtef. ad 
 Pauh(,ni III, 
 
1*1 
 
 270 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 reason." And though the doctrines are for the most 
 part stated as portions of a mathematical calculation, 
 the explanation of the arrangement hy which the sun is 
 placed in the centre of the system is accompanied by a 
 natural reflection of a religious cast : " Who in this fair 
 temple would place this lamp in any other or better 
 place than there whence it may illuminate the whole ? 
 We find then under this ordination an admirable 
 symmetry of the world, and a certain harmonious 
 connexion of the motion and magnitude of the orbs, 
 such as in any other way cannot be found. Thus the 
 progressions and regressions of the planets all arise 
 from the same cause, the motion of the earth. And 
 that no such movements are seen in the fixed stars, 
 argues their immense distance from us, which causes 
 the apparent magnitude of the earth's annual course to 
 become evanescent. So great, in short, is this divine 
 fabric of the great and good God ; " * " this best and 
 most regular artificer of the universe," as he elsewhere 
 speaks. 
 
 Kepler was the person, who by further studying "the 
 connexion of the motions and magnitude of the orbs," 
 to which Copernicus had thus drawn the attention of 
 astronomers, detected the laws of this connexion, and 
 prepared the way for the discovery, by Newton, of the 
 mechanical laws and causes of such motions. Kepler 
 was a man of strong and lively piety ; and the exhorta- 
 tion which he addresses to his reader before entering 
 on the exposition of some of his discoveries, may be 
 quoted not only for its earnestness but its reasonable- 
 
 * Lib. i., ex. 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 271 
 
 ness also.—" I beseech my reader, that not unmindful 
 of the divine goodness bestowed on man, he do with 
 me praise and celebrate the wisdom and greatness of 
 the Creator, which I open to hun from a more inward 
 explication of the form of the world, from a searching 
 of causes, from a detection of the errors of vision : and 
 that thus, not only in the firmness and stability of the 
 earth he perceive with gratitude the preservation of all 
 living tilings in nature as the gift of God, but also that 
 in its motion, so recondite, so admirable, he acknow- 
 ledge the wisdom of the Creator. But him who is too 
 dull to receive this science, or too weak to believe the 
 Copernican system without harm to his piety, him, I 
 say, I advise that, leaving the school of astronomy, and 
 condemnmg, if he please, any doctrines of tbe philo- 
 sophers, he follow his own path, and desist from this 
 wandering tlirough the universe, and lifting up his 
 natural eyes, with which alone he can see, pour himself 
 out from his own heart in praise of God the Creator ; 
 being certam that he gives no less worship to God than 
 the astronomer, to whom God has given to see more 
 clearly with his inward eye, and who, for what he has 
 himself discovered, both can and will glorify (rod." 
 
 The next great step in our knowledge of the universe, 
 the discovery of the mechanical causes by which its 
 motions are produced, and of their laws, has in modem 
 times sometimes been supposed, both by the friends of 
 religion and by others, to be unfavourable to the im- 
 pression of an intelligent First Cause. That such a 
 supposition is founded in error we have offcTed what 
 appear to us insurmountable reasons for believing. 
 
272 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 l\i 
 
 'ill! 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 ')» 
 
 III 
 
 I 
 
 That in tlie mind of the great discoverer of this me- 
 chanical cause, Newton, the impression of a creating 
 and presiding Deity was confirmed, not shaken, by all 
 his discoveries, is so well known that it is almost 
 superfluous to insist upon the fact. His views of the 
 tendency of science invested it with no dangers of this 
 kind. " The business of natural philosophy is," he 
 says, (Optics, Qu. 28,) "to argue from phenomena 
 without feigning hypotheses, and to deduce causes from 
 effects, till we come to the very first cause, which cer- 
 tainly is not mechanical." " Though every true step 
 made in this philosophy brings us not immediately to 
 the knowledge of the first cause, yet it brings us nearer 
 to it, and is on that account highly to be valued." The 
 Scholium, or note, which concludes his great work, the 
 Principia, is a w^ell-known and most striking evidence 
 on this point, " This beautiful system of sun, planets 
 and comets, could have its origin in no other way than 
 by the purpose and command of an intelligent and 
 powerful Being. He governs all things, not as the soul 
 of the world, but as the lord of the universe. He is 
 not only God, but Lord or Governor. We know him 
 only by his properties and attributes, by the wise and 
 admirable structure of things around us, and by their 
 final causes ; we admire him on account of his perfec- 
 tions, we venerate and worship him on accoimt of his 
 government." 
 
 Without making any further quotations, it must be 
 evident to the reader that the succession of great 
 philosophers through whom mankind have been led 
 to the knowledge of the greatest of scientific truths, the 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 273 
 
 law of universal gravitation, did, for their parts, see 
 the truths which they disclosed to men in such a light 
 that theii' religious feelings, their reference of the world 
 to an intelligent Creator and Preserver, their admira- 
 tion of his attiibutes, were exalted rather than impaired 
 by the insight which they obtained into the structure of 
 the universe. 
 
 Having shown this with regard to the most perfect 
 portion of human knowledge, our knowledge of the 
 motions of the solar system, we shall adduce a few 
 other passages, illustrating the prevalence of the same 
 fact in other departments of experimental science; 
 although, for reasons which have already been inti- 
 mated, we conceive that sciences of experiment do not 
 conduct so obviously as sciences of observation to 
 the impression of a Divine Legislator of tlie material 
 world. 
 
 Tlie science of Hydrostatics was constructed in a 
 great measure by the founders of the sister science of 
 Mechanics. Of those who were employed in experi- 
 mentally establishing the principles pecuHarly belonging 
 to the doctrine of fluids, Pascal and Boyle are two of 
 the most eminent names. That these two gi-eat philo- 
 sophers were not only rehgious, but both of them 
 remarkable for their fervent and pervading devotion, 
 is too well known to be dwelt on. With regard to 
 Pascal, however, we ought not perhaps to pass over an 
 opinion of his, tha,t the existence of God cannot be 
 proved from the external world. "I do not undertake 
 to prove this," says he, " not only because I do not feel 
 myself sufficiently strong to find in nature that which 
 
274 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 i 
 
 shall convince obstinate atheists, but because such 
 knowledge without Jesus Christ is useless and sterile." 
 It is obvious that such a state of mind would prevent 
 this writer from encouraging or dwelling upon the 
 grounds of natural rehgion ; while yet he liimseK is 
 an example of that which we wish to illustrate, that 
 those who have obtained the furthest insight into 
 nature, have been in all ages firm behevers in God. 
 " Nature," he says in another place, " has perfections 
 in order to show that she is the image of God, and 
 defects in order to show that she is only his image." * 
 
 Boyle was not only a most pious man as well as a 
 great philosopher, but he exerted himself very often 
 and earnestly in his writings to show tlie bearing of his 
 natural philosophy upon his views of the divine attri- 
 butes, and of the government of the world. Many of 
 these dissertations convey trains of thought and rea- 
 soning which have never been surpast for their combi- 
 nation of judicious sobriety in not pressing his 
 arguments too far, with fervent devotion in his con- 
 ceptions of the Divine nature. As examples of these 
 merits, we might adduce almost any portion of liis 
 tracts on tliese subjects ; for instance, his " Inquuy 
 into the Final Causes of Natm-al Things ; " his " Free 
 Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature ; " his 
 " Christian Virtuoso ; " and his Essay entititled " The 
 High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God." It 
 would be superfluous to quote at any length from these 
 works. We may observe, however, that he notices 
 that general fact which we are at present employed in 
 
 * Pensees, Art. viii., 1. 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 275 
 
 exemplifying, that " in almost all ages and countries 
 tlie generaHty of philosophers and contemplative men 
 were persuaded of the existence of a Deity from the 
 consideration of the phenomena of the imiverse ; whose 
 fabric and conduct they rationally concluded could not 
 justly be ascribed either to chance or to any other 
 cause than a Divine Being." And in speaking of the 
 religious uses of science, he says : " Though I am 
 wilHng to gi^ant that some impressions of God's 
 wisdom are so conspicuous that even a superficial 
 pliilosopher may thence infer that the author of such 
 works must be a wise agent ; yet how wise an agent he 
 has in these works expressed himseK to b^, none but 
 an experimental philosopher can well discern. And 
 'tis not by a slight survey, but by a diligent aad skilful 
 scrutiny, of the works of God, that a man must be, by 
 a rational and afi'ective conviction, engaged to acknow- 
 ledge that the author of nature * is wonderful iji counsel, 
 and excellent in working.' " 
 
 After the mechanical properties of fluids, the laws of 
 the operation of the chemical and physical properties 
 of the elements about us, offer themselves to our notice. 
 The relations of heat and of moistm^e in particular,* 
 which play so important a part, as we have seen, in the 
 economy of our world, have been the subject of various 
 researches ; and they have led to views of the operation 
 of such agents, some of which we have endeaToured to 
 present to the reader, and to point out the remai'kable 
 aiTangements by which theii- beneficial operation is 
 carried on. That the discoverers of the laws by which 
 such operations are regulated, were not insensible to 
 
 T 
 
276 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 n 
 
 the persuasion of a Divine care and contrivance which 
 those arrangements suggest, is what we should expect, 
 in agreement with what we have already said, and it is 
 what we find. Among the names of the philosophers 
 to whom we owe our knowledge on these subjects, 
 there are none greater than those of Black, the dis- 
 coverer of the laws of latent heat, and Dalton, who first 
 gave us a true view of the mode in which watery vapour 
 exists and operates in the atmosphere. With regard to 
 the former of these philosophers, we shall quote Dr. 
 Thomson's account of the views which tlie laws of 
 latent heat suggested to the discoverer.* " Dr. Black 
 quickly perceived the vast importance of this discoveiy, 
 and took a pleasure in laying before his students a 
 view of the beneficial effects of this habitude of heat in 
 the economy of nature. During the summer season a 
 vast magazine of heat is accumulated in the Avater, 
 which by gradually emerging durmg congelation serves 
 to temper the cold of winter. Were it not fur this 
 accumulation of heat in water and other bodies, the 
 sun would no sooner go a few degrees to the south of 
 the equator than we should feel all the horrors of 
 winter." 
 
 In the same spirit are Mr. Dalton's reflections, after 
 pointing out the laws which regulate the balance of 
 evaporation and rain,t which he himself first clearly 
 explained. " It is scarcely possible," says he, " to 
 contemplate without admiration the beautiful system 
 of nature by which the surface of the earth is con- 
 
 ♦ Thomson's Hist, of Chemistry, vol. i., p. 321. 
 f* Manch. Mem., vol. v., p. 346. 
 
 INDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 277 
 
 tinually supphed with water, and that unceasing 
 circulation of a fluid so essentially necessfiry to the 
 very being of the animal and vegetable king.iom takes 
 idace." 
 
 Such impressions appear thus to rise irresistibly in 
 the breasts of men, when they obtain a sight, for the 
 first time, of the varied play and comprehensive con- 
 nexions of the laws by which the business of the material 
 world is carried on and its occurrences are brought to 
 pass. To dwell upon or develope such reflections is 
 not here our busmess. Their general prevalence in 
 the minds of those to whom these first viev^s of new 
 truths are granted, has been, we trust, sufficiently 
 illustrated. Nor are the names adduced above, distin- 
 guished as they are, brouglit forward as authorities 
 merely. We do not claim for the greatest d:LScoverers 
 in the realms of science any immunity from en'or. In 
 their general opinions they may, as others may, judge 
 or reason ill. The articles of their religious belief may 
 be as easily and as widely as those of other men, 
 imperfect, perverted, unprofitable. But on this one 
 point, the tendency of our advances in the scientific 
 knowledge of the universe to lead us up to a belief in a 
 most wise maker and master of the universe, we conceive 
 that they who make these advances, and who feel, as an 
 original impression, that which others feel only by 
 receiving and teaching, must be looked t) with a 
 peculiar attention- and respect. And what their 
 impressions have commonly been, we have thus 
 endeavoured to show. 
 
278 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 Chap. VL — On Deductive Hahiis ; or, on the Impression produced on 
 Men's Minds hy tracing the consequences of ascertained Laws. 
 
 The opinion illustrated in the last chapter, that the 
 advances which men make in science tend to impress 
 upon them the reality of the Divine government of the 
 world, has often heen controverted. Complaints have 
 been made, and especially of late years, that the 
 growth of piety has not always been commensurate 
 with the growth of knowledge, in the minds of those 
 who make nature their study. Views of an irreligious 
 character have been entertained, it is sometimes said, 
 by j)ersons eminently well instructed in all the dis- 
 coveries of modern times, no less than by the superficial 
 and ignorant. Those who have been supposed to deny 
 or to doubt the existence, the providence, the attributes 
 of God, have in many cases been men of considerable 
 eminence and celebrity for their attainments in science. 
 The opinion that this is the case appears to be exten- 
 sively diffused, and this persuasion has probably often 
 produced inquietude and grief in the breasts of pious 
 and benevolent men. 
 
 This opinion, concerning the want of religious con- 
 victions among those who have made natural philosophy 
 their leading pursuit, has probably gone far beyond 
 the limits of the real fact. But if we allow that there 
 ai'e any strong cases to countenance such an opinion, it 
 may be worth our while to consider how far they admit 
 of any satisfactory explanation. The fact appears at 
 first sight to be at variance with the view, we have 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 279 
 
 given of the impression produced by scientific dis- 
 covery ; and it is moreover always a matter of uneasi- 
 ness and regret, to have men of eminent talents and 
 knowledge opposed to doctrines which we consider as 
 important truths. 
 
 We conceive that an explanation of such cases, if 
 they should occur, may be found in a very curious and 
 important circumstance belonging to the process by 
 which our physical sciences are formed. The first 
 discovery of new general trutlis, and the development 
 of these truths when once obtained, are two operations 
 extremely different— imply different mental habits, and 
 may easily be associated with different views and con- 
 victions on points out of the reach of scientific demon- 
 stration. There would therefore be nothing surprising, 
 or inconsistent with what we have maintaincid above, 
 if it should appear that while original discoverers of 
 laws of nature are peculiarly led, as w^e have seen, to 
 believe the existence of a supreme intelligence and 
 purpose; the far greater number of cultivators of 
 science, whose employment it is to learn from others 
 these general laws, and to trace, combine, and apply 
 their consequences, should have no clearness of con- 
 viction or security from error on this subject, beyond 
 what belongs to persons of any other class. 
 
 This will, perhaps, become somewhat more evident 
 by considering a Httle more closely the distinction of 
 the two operations- of discovery and development, of 
 which we have spoken above, and the tendency which 
 the habitual prosecution of them may be expected to 
 produce in the thoughts and views of the student. 
 
280 
 
 llELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 We have already endeavoured in some measure to 
 describe that whicli takes phice when a new law of 
 nature is discovered. A number of facts in which, 
 before, order and comiexion did not appear at all, or 
 appeared by partial and contradictory glimpses, are 
 brought into a point of view in which order and con- 
 nexion become their essential character. It is seen 
 that each fact is but a diiferent manifestation of the 
 same principle ; that each particular is that whicli it is, 
 in virtue of the same general truth. The inscription is 
 decyphered ; the enigma is guessed ; the principle is 
 understood ; the truth is enunciated. 
 
 AVhen this step is once made, it becomes possible to 
 deduce from the truth thus established, a train of con- 
 sequences often in no small degree long and complex. 
 The process of making these inferences may properly 
 be described by the word Deduction. On the other 
 hand, the very diiferent x>rocess by whicli a new prin- 
 ciple is collected from an assemblage of facts, has been 
 termed Induction ; the truths so obtained and their 
 consequences constitute the results of the Inductive 
 Philosophy ; which is frequently and rightly described 
 as a science which ascends from particular facts to 
 general principles, and then descends again from these 
 general principles to particular applications and exem- 
 plifications. 
 
 While the great and important labours by which 
 science is really advanced consist in the successive 
 steps of the inductive ascent, in the discovery of new 
 laws perpetually more and more general; by far the 
 greater part of our books of physical science unavoid- 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 281 
 
 ably consist in deductive reasoning, exhibiting the con- 
 sequences and applications of the laws which have been 
 discovered ; and the greater paii: of writers upon science 
 have their minds employed in this process of deduction 
 and application. 
 
 This is true of many of those who are considered, 
 and justly, as distinguished and profound philosophers. 
 In the mechanical philosophy, that science which 
 aj^plies the j^ropeilies of matter and the laws of motion 
 to the explanation of the phenomena of the v;orld, this 
 is peculiarly the case. The laws, when once discovered, 
 occupy little room in their statement, and when no 
 longer contested, are not felt to need a lengthe iied proof. 
 But their consequences require far more ]'ooiii and 
 far more intellectual labour. If we take, for example, 
 the laws of motion and the law of universal gi'avitation, 
 we can express in a few lines, that which, v hen deve 
 loped, represents and explains an innumerable mass of 
 natural phenomena. But here the course of develop* 
 ment is necessarily so long, the reasoning contains so 
 many steps, the considerations on which it rests are so 
 minute and refined, the complication of cases and of 
 consequences is so vast, and even the involuticm arising 
 from the properties of space and number is so serious, 
 that the most consummate subtlety, the most active 
 invention, the most tenacious power of inference, the 
 widest spirit of combination, must be tasked, and tasked 
 severely, in order to solve the problems which belong 
 to this portion of science. And the persons who have 
 been employed on these problems, and who have brought 
 to them the high and admirable qualities which such 
 
I 
 
 H 
 
 282 
 
 HELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 an office requires, have justly excited iii a very eminent 
 degree the admiration which mankind feel for great 
 intellectual powers. Their names occupy a distin- 
 guished place in literary history ; and probably there 
 are no scientific reputations of the last century higher, 
 and none more merited, than those earned by the great 
 mathematicians who have laboured with such wonderful 
 success in unfoldmg the mechanism of the heavens ; 
 such for instance as D'xVlembert, Clairault, Euler, 
 Lagrange, Laplace. 
 
 But it is still important to recollect, that the mental 
 employments of men, while they are occupied in this 
 portion of the task of the formation of science, are 
 altogether different from that wliich takes place in the 
 mind of a discoverer, who, for the first time, seizes 
 the principle wliich connects phenomena before unex- 
 plained, and thus adds another origmal truth to our 
 knowledge of the universe. In explaining, as the 
 great mathematicians just mentioned have done, the 
 phenomena of the solar system by means of the law of 
 universal gi'avitation, the conclusions at which they 
 arrived were really included in the truth of the law, 
 whatever skill and sagacity it might require to develope 
 and extricate them from the general principle. But 
 when Newton conceived and estabhshed the law itself, 
 he added to our knowledge something which was not 
 contained in any truth previously known, nor deducible 
 from it by any course of mere reasoning. And the 
 same distinction, in all other cases, obtains, between 
 these processes which establish the principles, generally 
 few and simple, on which om* sciences rest, and those 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 283 
 
 reasonings and calculations, founded on the principles 
 thus obtained, which constitute by far tlie largcjr portion 
 of the common treatises on the most complete of the 
 sciences now cultivated. 
 
 Since the difference is so great between the process 
 of inductive generalisation of physical facts, and that 
 of mathematical deduction of consequences, it is not 
 surprising that the two processes should imply different 
 mental powers and habits. However rare the mathe- 
 matical talent, in its highest excellence, may be, it is 
 far more common, if we are to judge from the liistory of 
 science, than tlie genius which divines the general laws 
 of nature. We have several good mathematicians in 
 every age ; we have few great discoverers in the whole 
 history of our species. 
 
 The distinction being thus clearly estabhshed between 
 origmal discovery and derivative speculation., between 
 the ascent to principles and the descent from them, we 
 have further to observe, that the habitual and exclusive 
 prosecution of the latter process may sometimes exercise 
 an unfavourable effect on the mind of the stu<lent, and 
 may make him less fitted and ready to apprehend and 
 accept truths different from those with which his 
 reasonings are concerned. We conceive, for example, 
 that a person labours under gross error, who believes 
 the phenomena of the world to be altogether produced 
 by mechanical causes, and who excludes from his view 
 all reference to an intelligent First Cause and Crovemor. 
 But we conceive that reasons may be shovMi which 
 make it more probable that error of such a kind should 
 find a place in the mind of a person of deductive, than of 
 
 a^^i/-hiyiiirit 
 
284 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 inductive habits ;--of a mere mathematician or logician, 
 than of one who studies the facts of the natural world 
 and detects their laws. 
 
 The person whose mind is employed in reducing to 
 law and order and inteUigible cause the complex facts 
 of the material world, is compelled to look beyond the 
 present state of his knowledge, and to turn his thoughts 
 to the existence of principles higher than those which 
 he yet possesses. He has seen occasions when facts that 
 at first seemed incoherent and anomalous, were reduced 
 to rule and connexion ; and when limited rules were 
 discovered to be included in some rule of superior 
 generality. He knows that all facts and appearances, 
 all partial laws, however confused and casual they at 
 present seem, must still, in reality, have this same kind 
 of bearing and dependence ;— must be bound together 
 by some undiscovered principle of order ; — must pro- 
 ceed from some cause working by most steady rules ; — 
 must be included in some wide and fruitful general 
 truth. He cannot therefore consider any principles 
 which he has already obtamed, as the ultimate and 
 sufficient reason of that which he sees. There must 
 be some higher principle, some ulterior reason. The 
 effoi-t and stniggle by which he endeavours to extend 
 his view, makes him feel that there is a region of truth 
 not included in his present physical knowledge; the 
 very imperfection of the light in which he works his 
 way, suggests to him that there must be a source of 
 clearer illumination at a distance from him. 
 
 We must allow that it is scarcely possible to describe, 
 in a manner free from some vagueness and obscurity. 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 '2-&^ 
 
 jthe effect thus produced upon the mind by the efforts 
 which it makes to reduce natural phenomena to 
 general laws. But we trust it will still be allowed that 
 there is no difficulty in seeing clearly that a. different 
 influence may result from this process, and from the 
 process of deductive reasoning which forms the main 
 employment of the mathematical cultivators and syste- 
 matic expositors of physical science in modern times. 
 Such persons are not led by their pursuits to anything 
 beyond the general principles, which form the basis of 
 their explanations and applications. They acquiesce 
 in these; they make these their ultimate gi'ounds of 
 truth ; and they are entirely employed in unfoldmg the 
 particular truths whicli are involved in sucli general 
 truths. Tlieir thoughts dwell little upon the i:>ossibility 
 of the laws of nature being other than we find them to 
 be, or on the reasons why they are not so ; and still less 
 on those facts and phenomena which philosophers have 
 not yet reduced to any rule, which are lawk^ss to us, 
 though we know that, in realit}^ they must be governed 
 by some principle of order and harmony. On the 
 contrary, by assuming perpetually the existing laws as 
 the basis of their reasoning, without question or doubt, 
 and by employing such language that these laws can 
 be expressed in the simplest and briefest form, they 
 are led to think and believe as if these laws were 
 necessarily and inevitably what they are. Some 
 mathematicians, indeed, have maintained that the 
 highest laws of nature with which we are acquainted, 
 the laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, 
 are not only necessarily true, but are even self-evident 
 
286 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 and certain a priori, like the truths of geometry. And 
 though the mathematical cultivator of the science of 
 mechanics may not adopt this as his speculative opi- 
 nion, he may still be so far influenced by the tendency 
 from which it springs, that he may rest in the mecha- 
 nical laws of the universe as ultimate and all-sufficient 
 principles, without seeing in them any evidence of their 
 having been selected and ordained, and thus without 
 ascending from the contemplation of the world to the 
 thought of an Intelligent Ruler. He may thus sub- 
 stitute for the Deity certain axioms and first principles, 
 as the cause of all. And the follower of Newton may 
 run into the error with which he is sometimes charged, 
 of tlirusting some mechanic cause into the place of 
 God, if he do not raise his views, as his master did, to 
 some higher cause, to some soui^ce of all forces, laws, 
 and principles. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider the mathematicians 
 who are employed in successfully applying the mecha- 
 nical philosophy, as men well deser\dng of honour fi'om 
 those who take an interest in the progress of science, 
 we do rightly; but it is still to be recollected, that 
 in doing this they are not carrj^ing us to any higher 
 point of view in the knowledge of nature than we 
 had attained before : they are only unfolding the 
 consequences, w^hich were abeady \irtually in our 
 possession, because they were imphed in principles 
 already discovered :— they are adding to our knowledge 
 of effects, but not to our knowledge of causes : — they 
 are not making any advance in that progress of which 
 Newton spoke, and in which he made so vast a stride. 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 287 
 
 in which "every step made brings us nearer to the 
 knowledge of the first cause, and is on that account 
 highly to be valued." And as in this advance they 
 have no peculiar privileges or advantages, their eiTors 
 of opinion concerning it, if they err, are no more to be 
 wondered at than those of common men ; and need as 
 httle disturb or distress us, as if those who committed 
 them had confined themselves to the study of Mrithmetic 
 or of geometry. If we can console and tranquiUise 
 ourselves concerning the defective or perverted views 
 of religious truth entertained by any of our fellow men, 
 we need find no additional difficulty in doing so when 
 those who are mistaken are great mathematicians, who 
 have added to the riches and elegance of the mechanical 
 phHosophy. And if we are seeking for extraneous 
 grounds of trust and comfort on this subjeci;, we may 
 find them in the reflection ;— that, whatever may be the 
 opinions of those who assume the causes and laws of 
 that philosophy and reason from them, the views of 
 those admirable and ever-honoured men who first 
 caught sight of these laws and causes, impressed them 
 with the beUef that tliis is " the fabric of a jTreat and 
 good God;" that "it is man's duty to pour out his 
 soul in praise of the Creator;" and that all this beau- 
 tiful system must be referred to " a first cause, which 
 is certainly not mechanical." 
 
 II. We may thus, with the greatest propriety, deny 
 to the mechanical philosophers and mathematicians of 
 recent times any authority with regard to tbeir views 
 of the administration of the universe; we have no 
 reason whatever to expect from their speculations any 
 
nm.Tm 
 
 288 
 
 IlELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 lielp, when we attempt to ascend to the first cause and 
 supreme Ruler of the universe. But we might perhaps 
 go further, and assert that they are in some respects 
 less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to 
 make any clear advance towards such a subject of 
 speculation. Persons whose thoughts are thus entirely 
 occupied in deduction are apt to forget that this is, 
 after all, only one employment of the reason among 
 more ; only one mode of arriving at truth, needing to 
 have its deficiencies completed by another. Deductive 
 reasoners, those who cultivate science of whatever kind, 
 by means of mathematical and logical processes alone, 
 may acquire an exaggerated feeling of the amount and 
 value of their labours. Such employments, from the 
 clearness of the notions involved in them, the irre- 
 sistible concatenation of truths which they unfold, the 
 subtlety which they requii'e, and their entire success in 
 that which they attempt, possess a peculiar fascination 
 for the intellect. Those who pm'sue such studies have 
 ^renerally a contempt and impatience of the pretensions 
 of all those other portions of our knowledge, where 
 from the nature of the case, or the small i^rogress 
 hithei*to made in their cultivation, a more vague and 
 loose kind of reasoning seems to be adopted. Now if 
 this feeling be carried so far as to make the reasoner 
 suppose that these mathematical and logical processes 
 can lead him to all the knowledge and all the certainty 
 which we need, it is clearly a delusive feeling. For it 
 is confessed on all hands, that all which mathematics 
 or which logic can do, is to develope and extract those 
 truths, as conclusions, which were in reaUty involved 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 289 
 
 in the principles on which our reasonings i)roceeded.* 
 And this being allowed, we cannot but ask how we 
 obtain these principles? from what other source of 
 knowledge we derive the original truths whicli we thus 
 pursue into detail ? since it is manifest that such 
 principles cannot be derived from the prober stores 
 of mathematics or logic. These methods can generate 
 no new truth ; and all the grounds and elements of the 
 Imowledge which, through them, we can acqidre, must 
 necessarily come from some extraneous source. It 
 is certain, therefore, that the mathematician and the 
 logician must derive from some process different from 
 their own, the substance and material of all our know- 
 ledge, whether physical or metaphysical, physiological 
 or moral. This process, by which we acquire; our first 
 principles (without pretending here to anal}'se it), is 
 obviously the general course of human experience, and 
 the natural exercise of the understanding : our inter- 
 course with matter and with men, and the consequent 
 growth in our minds of convictions and conceptions 
 such as our reason can deal with, either by her 
 systematic or unsystematic methods of procedure. 
 Supplies from this vast and inexhaustible source of 
 original truths are requisite, to give any value whatever 
 to the results of our deductive processes, whether 
 
 ♦ " Since all reasoning may be resolved into syllogisms, and since in 
 a syllogism the premises do virtually assert the conclusion, it follows 
 at once, that no new truth can be elicited by any process of reasonmg." 
 — Whately'a Logic, p. 223. 
 
 Mathematics is the logic of qtbarUity, and to this science the observa- 
 tion here quoted is strictly applicable. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 
 mathematical or logical; while, on the other hand, 
 there are many branches of our knowledge in which 
 we possess a large share of original and derivative 
 convictions and truths, but where it is nevertheless at 
 present quite impossible to erect our knowledge into 
 a complete system ; — to state our primary and inde- 
 pendent truths, and to show how on these all the rest 
 depend by the rules of art. If the mathematician is 
 repelled from speculations on morals or politics, on the 
 beautiful or the right, because the reasonings which 
 tliey involve have not mathematical precision and 
 conclusiveness, he will remain destitute of much of the 
 most valuable knowledge which man can acquire. 
 And if he attempts to mend the matter by giving to 
 treatises on morals, or politics, or criticism, a form and 
 a phraseology borrowed from the very few tolerably 
 complete physical sciences which exist, it will be found 
 that he is compelled to distort and damage the most 
 important truths, so as to deprive them of their true 
 shape and import, in order to force them into their 
 places in his ai'tiiicial system. 
 
 If, therefore, as we have said, the mathematical 
 philosopher dwells in his own bright and pleasant land 
 of deductive reasonmg, tiU he turns with disgust from 
 all the speculations, necessarily less clear and conclu- 
 sive, in which his imagination, his practical faculties, 
 his moral sense, his capacity of religious hope and 
 belief, are to be called into action, he becomes, more 
 than common men, liable to miss tlie roads to truths 
 of extreme consequence. 
 
 This is so obvious, that charges are frequently 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 291 
 
 brought agamst the study of mathematics, as unfittmg 
 men for those occupations which depend upon our 
 common instinctive convictions and feelings, upon 
 the imsystematic exercise of the understanding with 
 regard to common relations and common oc(;urrences. 
 Bonaparte observed of Laplace when he was placed in 
 a public office of considerable importance, that he did 
 not discharge it in so judicious and clear-sighted a 
 manner as his high intellectual fame might lead most 
 persons to expect.* "He sought," that great judge 
 of character said, "subtleties in every subject, and 
 carried into his official employments the spirit of the 
 method of infinitely small quantities," by which the 
 mathematician solves his most abstruse problems. And 
 the complaint that mathematical studies make men 
 insensible to moral evidence and to poetical beauties, 
 is so often repeated as to show that some opposition of 
 tendency is commonly perceived between that exercise 
 of the intellect which mathematics requires, and those 
 processes which go on in our minds when moral cha- 
 racter or imaginative beauty is the subject of our 
 contemplation. 
 
 Thus, while we acknowledge all the beauty and all 
 the value of the mathematical reasonings by ^shich the 
 
 * «^A rinte'rieur, le ministre Quinette fut remplacd par Laplace, 
 g^ometre du premier rang, mais qui ne tarda pas ^ se montrer 
 administrateur plus que mediocre : des son premier travaij les consuls 
 s'aper9urent qu'ils s'^taient tromp^s : Laplace ne saisis.'mt aucune 
 question sous son vrai point de vue : il cherchait des suhtiUt^s par- 
 tout, n'avait que des id^es problematiques, et portait enfin I'etprit 
 des infiniment petits dans I'administration."— Jfewoim (fo-itt a Ste. 
 Helene, i. 3. 
 
 u 2 
 

 llELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 consequences of our general laws are deduced, we may 
 yet consider it possible that a philosopher, whose mind 
 has been mainly employed, and his intellectual habits 
 determined, by this process of deduction, may possess, 
 in a feeble and imperfect degree only, some of those 
 faculties by which truth is attained, and especially 
 truths such as regard our relation to that mind, which 
 is the origin of all law, the source of first principles, 
 and w^hich must be immeasurably elevated above all 
 derivative truths. It w^ould, therefore, be far from 
 surprising, if there should be found, among the great 
 authors of the developments of the mechanical philo- 
 sophy, some who had refused to refer the phenomena 
 of the universe to a supreme mind, purpose, and will. 
 And though this would be, to a believer in the being 
 and government of God, a matter of sorrow and pain, 
 it need not excite more surprise than if the same were 
 true of a person of the most ordinary endowments, 
 \vhen i t is recollected in what a disproportionate manner 
 the various faculties of such a philosopher may have 
 been cultivated. And our apprehensions of injury to 
 mankind from the influence of such examples will 
 diminish, when we consider that those mathematicians 
 whose minds have been less partially exercised, the 
 great discoverers of the truths w^hich others apply, 
 the philosophers who have looked upwards as well as 
 downwards, to the unknown as w^ell as to the known, 
 to ulterior as well as proximate principles, have never 
 rested in this narrow and barren doctrine; but have 
 perpetually extended their view forwards, beyond mere 
 material laws and causes, to a First Cause of the 
 
 DEDUCTIVE HABITS. 
 
 293 
 
 moral and material world, to which each advance in 
 philosophy might bring them nearer, though its highest 
 attributes must probably ever remain indefinitely beyond 
 their reach. 
 
 It scarcely needs, perhaps, to be noticed, that what 
 ^ve here represent as the possible source of error is, 
 not the perfection of the mathematical habits of the 
 mind, but the deficiency of the habit of apprehending 
 truth of other kinds; — not a clear insight into the 
 mathematical consequences of principles, but a want of 
 a clear view of the nature and foundation of principles ; 
 — not the talent for generalising geometiical or mecha- 
 nical relations, but the tendency to erect such relations 
 into ultimate truths and efiicient causes. The most 
 consummate mathematical skill may accompany and 
 be auxiliary to the most earnest piety, as it often has 
 been. And an entire command of the concepitions and 
 processes of mathematics is not only consistent witli, 
 but is the necessary condition and principal instrument 
 of every important step in the discovery oi' physical 
 principles. Newton was eminent above the philosophers 
 of his time, in no one talent so much as in the power 
 of mathematical deduction. When he had caught sight 
 of the law of universal gravitation, he traced it to its 
 consequences with a rapidity, a dexterity, a beauty of 
 mathematical reasonmg which no other person could 
 approach ; so that on this account, if there had been no 
 other, the establishment of the general law was possible 
 to him alone. He still stands at the head of mathe- 
 maticians as well as of philosophical discoverers. But 
 it never appeared to him, as it may have appeared to 
 
JSBBSSSSm 
 
 i 
 
 (■.' 
 
 29^ 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 some mathematicians who have employed themselves 
 on his discoveries, that the general law was an ultimate 
 and sufficient principle; that the point to wliich he 
 had hung his chain of deduction was the highest point 
 in the universe. Lagrange, a modern mathematician 
 of transcendent genius, was in the habit of sajing, 
 in his aspirations after future fame, that Newton was 
 fortunate in having had the system of the world for his 
 problem, since its theory could be discovered once 
 only. But Newton himself appears to have had no 
 such persuasion that the problem he had solved was 
 unique and final; he laboured to reduce gravity to 
 some higher law, and the forces of other physical 
 operations to an analogy witli those of gi'avity, and 
 declared that all these were but steps in our advance 
 towards a First Cause. Between us and this First Cause, 
 the source of the universe and of its laws, we cannot 
 doubt that there intervene many successive stej)s of 
 possible discovery and generalisation, not less wide and 
 striking than the discovery of imiversal gravitation: 
 but it is still more certain that no extent or success of 
 physical investigation can carry us to any point which 
 is not at an immeasurable distance from an adequate 
 knowledge of Him. 
 
 Chap, Yll.—On Final Causes. 
 
 We have pointed out a great number of instances 
 where the mode in which the arrangements of nature 
 produce their effect, suggests, as we conceive, the belief 
 that this effect is to be considered as the end and 
 
 FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 295 
 
 purpose of these arrangements. The impression which 
 thus arises, of design and intention exercised in the 
 formation of the world, or of the reality of Filial Causes, 
 operates on men's minds so generally, and increases 
 so constantly on every additional examination of the 
 phenomena of the universe, that we cannot but suppose 
 such a belief to have a deep and stable foundation. 
 And we conceive that in several of the com paratively 
 few cases in which such a belief has been rejected, the 
 averseness to it has arisen from the influence of some 
 of the causes mentioned in the last chapter ; the exclu- 
 sive pursuit, namely, of particular trains and modes 
 of reasoning, till the mind becomes less cajDable of 
 forming the concej)tions and making the exertions 
 which are requisite for the apprehension of truths not 
 included among its usual subjects of thought. 
 
 I. This seems to be the case with those who maintain 
 that purpose and design cannot be inferred ct deduced 
 from the arrangements which we see around us, by any 
 process of reasoning. We can reason from effects to 
 causes, say such writers, only in cases where we know 
 something of the nature of the cause. We can infer 
 from the works of men, the existence of design and 
 purpose, because we know, from past observation, what 
 kind of works human design and pm*pose can produce. 
 But the universe, considered as the work of God, cannot 
 be compared with any corresponding work, or judged of 
 by any analogy with known examples. How then can 
 we, in this case, they ask, infer design and purpose in 
 the artist of the imiverse ? On what principles, on 
 what axioms, can we proceed, which shall include this 
 
 
296 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 necessarily singulai^ instance, and thus give legitimacy 
 and validity to our reasonings. 
 
 What has already been said on the subject of the 
 two different processes by which we obtain principles, 
 and by wliich we reason from them, will suggest the 
 reply to these questions. When we collect design and 
 purpose from the arrangements of the universe, we do 
 not arrive at our conclusion by a train of deductive 
 reasoning, but by the conviction which such combi- 
 nations as we perceive, immediately and durectly 
 impress upon the mind. "Design must have had a 
 designer." But such a principle can be of no avail to 
 one whom the contemplation or the description of the 
 world does not impress with the perception of design. 
 It is not therefore at the end, but at the beginning of 
 our syllogisms, not among remote conclusions, but 
 among original principles, that we must place the truth, 
 that such arrangements, manifestations, and pro- 
 ceedings as we behold about us imply a Being 
 endowed with consciousness, design, and will, from 
 whom they proceed. 
 
 This is inevitably the mode in which such a con- 
 viction is acquired ; and that it is so, we may the 
 more readily beheve, when we consider that it is the 
 case with the design and will which we ascribe to man, 
 no less than in that which we believe to exist in God. 
 At first sight we might perhaps be tempted to say, that 
 we infer design and purpose from the works of man in 
 one case, because we have known these attributes in 
 other cases produce effects in some measure similar. 
 But to this we must reply, by asking how we come 
 
 FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 297 
 
 / 
 
 to know the existence of human design and i)urpose at 
 first, and at all ? What we see around us axe certain 
 appearances, things, successions of events; how come 
 we ever to ascribe to other men the thought and will of 
 which we are conscious oiu'selves ? How do w^e come 
 to believe that there are other men ? How jire we led 
 to elevate, in our conceptions, some of the objects which 
 we perceive into persons ? Undoubtedly, their actions, 
 their words induce us to do this : we see that the 
 manifestations wliich we observe must be so under- 
 stood, and no otherwise : we feel that such actions, 
 such events, must be connected by consciousness and 
 personaHty; that the actions are not the actions of 
 things, but of persons; not necessary and without 
 significance, like the faUing of a stone, but voluntary 
 and with pm-pose like what we do ourselves. But this is 
 not a result of reasoning : we do not infer this from any 
 similar case which we have known ; since \^'e are now 
 speaking of the first conception of a will and purpose 
 different from our own. In arriving at such linowledge, 
 we are aided only by our own consciousness of what 
 thought, purpose, will, are : and possessing ihis regu- 
 lative principle, we so decipher and intei*pret the 
 complex appearances which surround us, that we receive 
 irresistibly the persuasion of the existence of other 
 men, with thought and will and purpose like our own. 
 And just in the same manner, when we examine 
 attentively the adjustment of the parts of tlie human 
 frame to each other and to the elements, the relation of 
 the properties of the earth to those of its inhabitants, 
 or of the physical to the moral nature of man, the 
 
298 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 It! 
 
 thought must arise and cling to our perceptions, 
 however little it be encouraged, that this system, 
 everywhere so fuU of wonderful combmations, suited to 
 the preservation, and well-being of living creatures, is 
 also the expression of the intention, wisdom, and 
 goodness of a personal Creator and Governor. 
 
 We conceive, then, that it is so far from being an 
 unsatisfactory or unphilosophical process by which we 
 collect the existence of a Deity from the works of 
 creation, that the process corresponds most closely with 
 that on which rests the most steadfast of our con- 
 victions, next to tliat of our own existence, the belief of 
 the existence of other human beings. If any one ever 
 went so far in scepticism as to doubt the existence of 
 any other person than himself, he might, so far as the 
 argument from final causes is concerned, reject the 
 being of God as well as that of man ; but without 
 dwelling on the possibility of such fantasies, when we 
 consider how impossible it is for men in general not to 
 attribute personality, purpose, thought, will to each 
 other, in virtue of certain combinations of appearances 
 and actions, we must deem them most consistent and 
 reasonable in attributing also personaHty and purpose 
 to God, in \drtue of the whole assemblage of appearances 
 and actions which constitute the universe, full as it is 
 of combinations from which such a suggestion springs. 
 The vividness, tlie constancy of the belief of a wise and 
 good Being, thus governing the world, may be different 
 in different men, according to their habit of directing 
 their thoughts to the subject; but such a belief is 
 undoubtedly capable of becoming lively and steadfast 
 
 FINAL CAUSES, 
 
 299 
 
 in the highest degree. It has been entertfiined and 
 cherished by enlightened and well-regulated minds in 
 all ages ; and has been, at least since the rise of 
 Christianity, not only the belief, but a pervading and 
 ruling principle of action of many men, and of whole 
 communities. The idea may be rendered more faint 
 by turning the mind away from it, and, p(;rhaps by 
 indulging too exclusively in abstract and general 
 speculations. It grows stronger by an actual study of 
 the details of the creation ; and, as regards the practical 
 consequences of such a belief, by a habit of referring 
 our actions and hopes to such a Governor. In this 
 wsLj it is capable of becoming as real and fixed an 
 impression as that of a human friend and master ; and 
 all that we can learn, by observing the course of men's 
 feelings and actions, tends to convince us, that this 
 belief of the being and presence and government of 
 God, leads to the most elevated and beneficial frame 
 of mind of which man is capable. 
 
 11. How natm-al and almost inevitable is this per- 
 suasion of the reality of Final Causes and ctmsequent 
 belief in the personality of the Deity, we may gather 
 by observing how constantly it recui's to the thoughts, 
 even of those who, in consequence of such peculiarities 
 of mental discii)line as have been described, have 
 repelled and resisted the impression. 
 
 Thus, Laplace, of whom we have already spoken, as 
 one of the greatest mathematicians of modern times, 
 expresses his conviction that the supposed evidence of 
 final causes will disappear as our knowledge advances, 
 and that they only seem to exist in those cases where 
 
300 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS, 
 
 our ignorance leaves room for such a mistake. *' Let 
 us run over," lie says, "the history of the progress of 
 the human mind and its errors : we shall iDerpetually 
 see final causes pushed away to the bounds of its 
 knowledge. These causes, which Newton removed to 
 the limits of the solar system, were not long ago 
 conceived to obtain in the atmosphere, and employed 
 in explaining meteors: they are, therefore, in the 
 eyes of the philosopher nothing more than the ex- 
 pression of the ignorance in which w^e are of the real 
 causes." 
 
 We may observe that we have endeavoured to give 
 a very different, and, as we believe, a far truer view 
 of the effect which philosophy has produced on our 
 knowledge of final causes. We have shown, we trust, 
 that the notion of design and end is transferred by the 
 researches of science, not from the domain of our 
 knowledge to that of our ignorance, but merely from 
 the region of facts to that of laws. We hold that, in 
 this form, final causes in the atmosphere are still to be 
 conceived to obtain, no less than in an earlier state 
 of meteorological knowledge; and that Newton was 
 right, when he believed that he had estabhshed 
 their reality in the solar system, not expelled them 
 from it. 
 
 But our more peculiar busmess at present is to 
 observe that Laplace himself, in describing the arrange- 
 ments by which the stability of the solar system is 
 secured, uses language which shows how irresistibly 
 these arrangements suggest an adaptation to its pre- 
 servation as an end. If in his expressions we were to 
 
 FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 301 
 
 substitute the Deity for the abstraction ** nature " 
 which he employs, his reflection would coinc^ide witli 
 that which the most religious philosopher would enter- 
 tain. " It seems that * God ' has ordered everything 
 in the heavens to ensure the duration of the planetary 
 system, by vieivs similar to those which He appears 
 to us so admirably to follow upon the earth, for the 
 preservation of animals and the perpetuity of species.* 
 This consideration alone would explain the disposition 
 of the system, if it were not the business of the 
 geometer to go further." It may be possible for the 
 geometer to go further; but he must be strangely 
 blinded by his peculiar piu-suits, if, when he has dis- 
 covered the mode in which these views are answered, 
 lie supposes himself to have obtained a proof that there 
 are no views at all. It would be as if the sa\'age, who 
 had marvelled at the steady working of the steam- 
 engine, should cease to consider it a work of art, as 
 soon as the self-regulating part of the mechaaism had 
 been explained to him. 
 
 The unsuccessful struggle in which those persons 
 engage, who attempt to throw off the impression of 
 design in the creation, appears in an amusing manner 
 through the simplicity of the ancient Roman poet of 
 this school. Lucretius maintains that the eye was not 
 made for seeing, nor the ear for hearing. But the 
 terms in which he recommends this doctrine show how 
 
 • " II semble que la nature ait tout dispose dans le del, pour assurer 
 la dur^e du syst^me planetaire, par des vues semblables K celles qu'elle 
 nous parait suivre si admirablement sur la terre, pour la conservation 
 des individus et la perp^tuitd des esp^ces." — Syst. du Mond<'^ p. 442. 
 
302 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 hard he knew it to be for men to entertain such an 
 opinion. His advice is — 
 
 niud in his rebus vitium vekevienter et istum 
 Effugere errorem, vitareque prcemeditator, 
 Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata, 
 Prospicere ut possimus. — iv. 823. 
 
 'Gainst their preposterous error guard thy mind 
 Who say each organ was for use design' d ; 
 Think not the visual orbs, so clear, so bright. 
 Were fumish'd for the purposes of sight. 
 
 ^^ Undoubtedly the poet is so far right, that a most 
 "vehement" caution and vigilant "premeditation" are 
 necessary to avoid the "vice and error" of such a per- 
 suasion. The study of the adaptations of the human 
 frame is so convincing, that it candies the mind with 
 it, in spite of the resistance suggested by speculative 
 systems. Cabanis, a modern French physiological 
 writer of great eminence, may be selected as a proof 
 of this. Both by the general character of his own 
 speculations, and by the tone of thinking prevalent 
 around him, the consideration of design in the works 
 of nature was abhorrent from his plan. Accordingly, 
 he joins in repeating Bacon's unfavourable mention 
 of final causes. Yet when he comes to speak of the 
 laws of reproduction of the human race, he appears to 
 feel himself compelled to admit the irresistible manner 
 in which such views force themselves on the mind. 
 "I regard," he says, "mth the great Bacon, the 
 phHosophy of final causes as barren ; but I have else- 
 where acknowledged that it was very difficult for the 
 
 FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 303 
 
 most cautious man (Ihomme le plus reserve) never to 
 have recourse to them in his explanations." * 
 
 III. It may be worth our while to consider for a 
 moment the opinion here referred to by Cabanis, of 
 the propriety of excluding the consideratiori of final 
 causes from our natural philosophy. The great authority 
 of Bacon is usually adduced on this subject. " The 
 handling of final causes," says he, "mixed with the 
 rest in physical inquiries, hath intercepted the severe 
 and diligent inquiry of all real and physical causes, 
 and given men the occasion to stay upon these satis- 
 factoiy and specious causes, to the great aiTest and 
 prejudice of farther discovery." f 
 
 A moment's attention will show how well this repre- 
 sentation agrees with that which we have urged, and 
 how far it is from dissuading the reference to final 
 causes in reasonings like those on which we are 
 employed. Final causes are to be excluded frojn phy- 
 sical inquiry ; that is, we are not to assume that we 
 know the objects of the Creator's design, and put this 
 assumed purpose in the place of a physical cause. We 
 are not to think it a sufficient account of the clouds 
 that they are for watering the earth (to take- Bacon's 
 examples), or "that the solidness of the earth is for 
 the station and mansion of living creatures." The 
 physical philosopher has it for his business to trace 
 clouds to the laws of evaporation and cond(insation ; 
 to determine the magnitude and mode of action of the 
 forces of cohesion and crystalHsation by wMch the 
 
 * Rapports du Physique et du Moral de THomme, i., 299. 
 t De Augment. Sc. ii., 105. 
 
304 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 materials of the earth are made solid and firm. This 
 he does, making no use of the notion of final causes : 
 and it is precisely because he has thus established his 
 theories independently of any assumption of an end, 
 that the end, when, after all, it returns upon him and 
 cannot be evaded, becomes an irresistible evidence of 
 an intelligent legislator. He finds that the efl'ects, 
 of which the use is obvious, are produced by most 
 simple and comprehensive laws ; and when he has 
 obtained this view, he is struck by the beauty of the 
 means, by the refined and skilful manner in which the 
 useful eft^ects are brought about; — points different from 
 those to which his researches were directed. We have 
 already seen, in the very case of which we have been 
 speaking, namely, the laws by whicli the clouds are 
 formed and distribute their showers over the earth, 
 how strongly those who have most closely and exten- 
 sively examined the arrangements there employed (as 
 Howard, Dalton, and Black) have been impressed with 
 the harmony and beauty which these contrivances 
 manifest. 
 
 We may find a further assertion of this view of the 
 proper use of final causes in philosophy, by referring 
 to the works of one of the greatest of our philosophers, 
 and one of the most pious of our writers, Boyle, who 
 has an Essay on tliis subject. " I am by all means," 
 says he, "for encouraging the contemplation of the 
 celestial part of the world, and the shining globes that 
 adorn it, and especially the sun and moon, in order 
 to raise our admiration of the stupendous power and 
 wisdom of Him who was able to frame such immense 
 
 FINAL CAUSES. 
 
 305 
 
 bodies ; and notwithstanding tlieir vast bulk and scarce 
 conceivable rapidity, keep them for so many ages 
 constant both to the lines and degi-ees of their motion, 
 mthout interfering with one another. And doubtless 
 we ought to return thanks and praises to the Divine 
 goodness for having so placed the sun and moon, and 
 determined the former, or else the earth, to move in 
 particular lines for the gox)d of men and other animals; 
 and how disadvantageous it would have been to the 
 inhabitants of the earth if the luminaries had moved 
 after a different manner. , I dare not, howevc^r, affirm 
 that the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies were 
 made solely for the use of man : much less presume to 
 jirove one system of the ivorld to he true and another 
 false ; because the former is better fitted to the conve- 
 nience of mankind, or the other less suited, or perhaps 
 altogether useless to that end.'' 
 
 This passage exliibits, we conceive, that combination 
 of feelings which ought to mark the character of the 
 religious natural philosopher; an earnest piety ready to 
 draw nutriment from the contemplation of established 
 physical truths; joined with a philosophical caution, 
 which is not seduced by the anticipation of such con- 
 templations, to pervert the strict course of physical 
 inquiry. 
 
 It is precisely through this philosophical <3are and 
 scrupulousness that our views of final causes acquire 
 then- force and valu.e as aids to rehgion. The object 
 of such views is not to lead us to physical trutb, but to 
 connect such truth, obtained by its proper processes 
 and methods, with our views of God, the master of the 
 
306 
 
 EELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 universe, through those laws and relations which are 
 thus placed beyond dispute. 
 
 Bacon's comparison of final causes to the vestal 
 virgins is one of those poignant sayings, so frequent in 
 his writings, which it is not easy to forget. "Like 
 them," he says, " they are dedicated to God, and are 
 barren." But to any one who reads his work it 
 will appear in what spirit this was meant. " Not 
 because those final causes are not true and worthy to 
 be inquired, being kept within their own province." 
 (Of the Advancement of Learning, b. ii., p. 142.) If 
 he had had occasion to develope his simile, full of latent 
 meaning as his similes so often are, he would probably 
 have said, that to these final causes barrenness was no 
 reproach, seeing they ought to be, not the mothers 
 but the daughters of our natural sciences ; and that 
 they were barren, not by imperfection of their nature, 
 but in order that they might be kept pure and undefiled, 
 and so fit ministers in the temple of God. 
 
 Chap. VIII. — On tJie Physical Agency of the Deify. 
 
 I. We are not to expect that physical investigation 
 can enable us to conceive the manner in which God 
 acts upon the members of the universe. The question, 
 y Canst thou by searching find out God ? " must silence 
 the boastings of science as well as the repinings of 
 adversity. Indeed, science shows us, far more clearly 
 than the conceptions of every day reason, at what an 
 immeasurable distance we are from any faculty of 
 conceiving hoiv the universe, material and moral, is the 
 
 AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 
 
 307 
 
 work of the Deity. But with regard to the material 
 world, we can at least go so far as this; — we can 
 perceive that events are brought about, not by insulated 
 interpositions of divine power exerted in each particular 
 case, but by the establishment of general laws. Tliis, 
 which is the view of the universe proper to science, 
 whose office it is to search out these laws, is also the 
 view which, throughout this work, we have endeavoured 
 to keep present to the mind of the reader. We have 
 attempted to show that it combines itself most readily 
 and harmoniously with the doctrines of Natural 
 Theology ; that the arguments for those doctrines are 
 strengthened, the difficulties which affect them removed, 
 by keeping it steadily before us. We conceive, there- 
 fore, that the religious philosopher wiU do well to bear 
 this conception in his mind. God is the author and 
 governor of the universe tlirough the laws wh ich he has 
 given to its parts, the propeiiies which he has impressed 
 upon its constituent elements : these laws and pro- 
 perties are, as we have akeady said, the instruments 
 with wliich he works : the institution of sucln laws, the 
 selection of the quantities which they involve, their 
 combination and application, are the modes in which 
 he exerts and manifests his power, his wisdom, his 
 goodness : through these attributes, thus exei'cised, the 
 Creator of all, shapes, moves, sustains and {glides the 
 visible creation. 
 
 This has been the \dew of the relation of the Deity 
 to the universe entertained by the most sagacious and 
 comprehensive minds ever since the true object of 
 natural philosophy has been clearly and steadily appre- 
 
 X 2 
 
 I 
 
308 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 liended. The great writer who was the first to give 
 philosophers a distinct and commanding view of this 
 object, thus expresses himself in his " Confession of 
 Faith:" "I believe—that notwithstanding God hath 
 rested and ceased from creating since the first Sabbath, 
 yet, nevei-tlieless, he doth accomphsh and fulfil liis 
 divine wiU in all tilings, great and small, singular 
 and general, as fully and exactly by providence, as 
 he could by miracle and new creation, though his 
 working be not immediate and direct, but by compass ; 
 not violating Nature, which is his own law upon the 
 creature." 
 
 And one of our own time, whom we can no longer 
 hesitate to place among the worthiest disciples of the 
 school of Bacon, conveys the same thought in the 
 following passage : '^ The Divine Author of the universe 
 cannot be supposed to have laid down particular laws, 
 enumerating all individual contingencies, which his 
 materials have understood and obey— this would be to 
 attribute to him the imperfections of human legislation ; 
 —but rather, by creating them endued with certain 
 fixed qualities and powers, he has impressed them in 
 their origin with the spirit, not the letter of his law, and 
 made all theii- subsequent combmations and relations 
 inevitable consequences of this first impression." - 
 
 II. This, which thus appears to be the mode of the 
 Deity's operation in the material world, requires some 
 attention on our part in order to understand it with 
 proper clearness. One reason of this is, that it is 
 a mode of operation altogether different from that in 
 
 * Herscliel on the Study of Nat. Phil. Ai-t. 27. 
 
 AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 
 
 309 
 
 which we are able to make matter fulfil our designs. 
 Man can construct exquisite machines, can call in vast 
 powers, can form extensive combinations, in order to 
 bring about results which he has in view. But in all 
 this he is only taking advantage of laws of nature 
 which already exist ; he is applying to his use qualities 
 which matter already possesses. Nor can he by any 
 effort do more. He can establish no new^ law of nature 
 which is not a result of the existing ones. He can 
 invest matter with no new properties which are not 
 modifications of its present attributes. His greatest 
 advances in skill and power are made when he calls 
 to his aid forces which before existed unemployed, or 
 when he discovers so much of the habits of some of the 
 elements as to be able to bend them to his purj^ose. 
 He navigates the ocean by the assistance of the winds 
 "which he cannot raise or still : and even if we suppose 
 him able to control the course of these, his yet 
 unsubjugated ministers, this could only be done by 
 studying their characters, by learning more tlioroughly 
 the law^s of air and heat and moisture. He c annot give 
 the minutest portion of the atmosphere new ]'elations, a 
 new course of expansion, new laws of motion. But the 
 Divine operations, on the other hand, include something 
 much higher. They take in the establishment of the 
 laws of the elements, as well as the combination of 
 these laws, and the determination of the distribution 
 and quantity of the materials on which they shall 
 produce their effect. We must conceive that the 
 Supreme Power has ordained that air shall be rarefied, 
 and water turned into vapour, by heat ; no less than 
 
310 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 that lie has combined aii- and water so as to sprinkle 
 the earth with showers, and determined the quantity of 
 heat and air and water, so that the showers shall be as 
 beneficial as they are. 
 
 We may and must, therefore, in our conceptions of 
 the Divine purpose and agency, go beyond the analogy 
 of human contrivances. We must conceive the Deity, 
 not only as constructing the most refined and vast 
 machinery, with which, as we have already seen, the 
 universe is filled; but we must also imagine him as 
 establishing those properties by which such machinery 
 is possible : as giving to the materials of his structui'e 
 the qualities by which the material is fitted to its use. 
 There is much to be found, in natural objects, of the 
 same kind of contrivance which is common to these and 
 to human inventions; there are mechanical devices, 
 operations of the atmospheric elements, chemical pro- 
 cesses ; — many such have been pointed out, many more 
 exist. But besides these cases of the combination of 
 means, which we seem able to miderstand without 
 much difficulty, we are led to consider the Divine 
 Being as the author of the laws of chemical, of physical, 
 and of mechanical action, and of such other laws as 
 make matter what it is ;— and this is a view which no 
 analogy of human inventions, no knowledge of human 
 powers, at all assist us to embody or miderstand. 
 Science, therefore, as we have said, while it discloses to 
 us the mode of instrumentality employed by the Deity, 
 convinces us, more effectually than ever, of the impos- 
 sibility of conceiving God's actions by assimilating 
 them to our own. 
 
 AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 
 
 311 
 
 III. The laws of material nature, such as we have 
 described them, operate at all times, and in all places ; 
 affect every province of the universe, and mvolve every 
 relation of its parts. Wherever these laws appear, we 
 have a manifestation of the intelligence by which they 
 were established. But a law supposes an agent, and a 
 power ; for it is the mode according to which the agent 
 proceeds, the order according to which the powder acts. 
 Without the presence of such an agent, of such a 
 power, conscious of the relations on which the law 
 depends, producing the effects which the law prescribes, 
 the law can have no efficacy, no existence. Hence we 
 infer that the intelligence by which the law is ordained, 
 the power by which it is put in action, must be present 
 at all times and in all places where the eflects of the 
 law occur ; that thus the knowledge and the agency of 
 the Divine Being pervade every portion of the universe, 
 producing all action and passion, aU permanence and 
 change. The laws of nature are the laws which he, 
 in his wisdom, prescribes to his own acts ; his universal 
 presence is the necessary condition of any course of 
 events, his imiversal agency the only origin of any 
 efficient force. 
 
 This view of the relation of the universe to God has 
 been entertained by many of the most eminent of 
 those who have combined the consideration of the 
 material world with the contemplation of God liimself. 
 It may therefore be of use to illustrate it by a few 
 quotations, and the more so, as we find this idea 
 remarkably dwelt upon in the works of that writer 
 whose religious views must always have a peculiar 
 
312 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEW'S. 
 
 interest for the cultivators of physical science, the great 
 Newton. 
 
 Thus, in the observations on the nature of the Deity 
 with which he closes the " Opticks," he declares the 
 various portions of the world, organic and inorganic, 
 , " can be the effect of nothing else than the wisdom and 
 skiU of a powerful ever-living Agent, who being in all 
 places, is more able by his will to move the bodies 
 within his boundless uniform sensorium, and thereby 
 to form and reform the parts of the universe, than we 
 are by our will to move the parts of our own bodies." 
 And in the Scholium at the end of the '' Principia," he 
 says, " God is one and the same God always and 
 everywhere. He is omnipresent, not by means of his 
 virtue alone, but also by his substance, for virtue 
 cannot subsist without substance. In him all things 
 are contained, and move, but without mutual passion : 
 God is not acted upon by the motions of bodies ; and 
 they suffer no resistance from the omnipresence of 
 God." And he refers to several passages confirmatory 
 of this view, not only in the Scriptures, but also in 
 writers wlio hand down to us the opinions of some of 
 the most philosophical thinkers of the pagan world. 
 He does not disdain to quote the poets, and among the 
 rest, the verses of Virgil ; 
 
 Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes 
 Lucentemque globum lunse, Titaniaque astra, 
 Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet : 
 
 warning his reader, however, against the doctrine which 
 such expressions as these are sometimes understood to 
 
 AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 
 
 313 
 
 express : "All these things he rules, not as the soul of 
 the world, but as the Lord of all." 
 
 Clarke, the friend and disciple of Newton, is one 
 of those who has most strenuously put forwards the 
 opinion of which we are speaking, " All things which 
 we commonly say are the effects of the natural powers 
 of matter and laws of motion — are, indeed (if we will 
 si)eak strictly and properly), the effects of God's acting 
 upon matter continually and at every moment, either 
 immediately by himself, or mediately by some created 
 intelligent being. Consequently there is no such 
 tiling as the cause of nature, or the power of nature," 
 independent of the effects produced by the will of 
 God. 
 
 Dugald Stewart has adopted and illustrated the same 
 opinion, and quotes with admiration the well-known 
 passage of Pope, concerning the Divine Agency, which 
 
 *' Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 
 
 Mr. Stewart, with no less reasonableness than charity, 
 asserts the propriety of mtei'i3reting such passages 
 according to the scope and spirit of the reasonings 
 with which they are connected ; * since, though by a 
 captious reader they might be associated with erroneous 
 views of the Deity, they may be susceptible of a more 
 favourable construction ; and we may often see in them 
 only the results of the necessary imperfection of oui* 
 language, when we dwell upon the omnipresence and 
 universal activity of God. 
 
 * Phil, of Act. and Moral Powers, i. 373. 
 
 fi 
 
 til 
 
 i 
 
 III 
 
 \\\ 
 
314 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 Finally, we may add that the same opinions still 
 obtain the assent of the best philosophers and divines 
 of our time. Sir John Herschel says (Discourse on 
 the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 37), " We would 
 no way be understood to deny the constant exercise of 
 His direct power in maintaining the system of nature ; 
 or the ultimate emanation, of every energy which 
 material agents exert, from His immediate wiU, acting 
 in conformity with His own laws." And the Bishop 
 of London, in a note to his " Sermon on the Duty of 
 combining ReHgious Instruction with Intellectual Cul- 
 ture," observes, " The student in natural philosophy 
 will find rest from all those perplexities which are 
 occasioned by the obscm^ity of causation, in the sup- 
 position which, although it was discredited by the 
 patronage of Malebranche and the Cartesians, has 
 been adopted by Clarke and Dugald Stewart, and 
 which is by far the most simple and subhme account 
 of the matter; that all the events which are continually 
 taking place in the different parts of the material 
 universe, are the immediate effects of the divine 
 agency." 
 
 Chap. IX.— On the Impression produced by considering the Nature mid 
 Prospects of Science ; or, on the ImpossibilUy of the Progress of our 
 Knowledge ever enabling us to compreliend the Nature of tU Deity, 
 
 If we were to stop at the \iew presented in the last 
 chapter, it might be supposed that— by considering 
 God as eternal and omnipresent, conscious of all the 
 relations, and of aU the objects of the universe, insti- 
 tuting laws founded on the contemplation of these 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OE GOD. 
 
 315 
 
 relations, and carrying these laws into eff(?ct by his 
 immediate energ}% — we had attained to a conception, 
 in some degree definite, of the Deity, such as natural 
 philosophy leads us to conceive him. But by resting 
 in this mode of conception, we should overlook, or at 
 least should disconnect from our philosophical doctrines, 
 aU that most interests and affects us in the character 
 of the Creator and Preserver of the world ; namely, 
 that he is the lawgiver and judge of om^ actions ; the 
 proper object of our prayer and adoration ; the source 
 from which we may hope for moral strength here, and 
 for the reward of our obedience and the elevation of our 
 nature in another state of existence. 
 
 We are verj^ far from believing that our philosophy 
 alone can give us such assurance of these important 
 truths as is requisite for our guidance and support; 
 but we think that even our physical philosophy will 
 point out to us the necessity of proceeding far beyond 
 that conception of God, which represents him merely 
 as the mind in which reside all the contrivance, law, 
 and energy of the material world. We belies^e that the 
 view of the universe wliich modern science has already 
 opened to us, compared with tlie prospect of what 
 she has still to do in pursuing the path on which she 
 has just entered, will show us how imiaeasurably 
 inadequate such a mode of conception would be : and 
 that if we take into our accomit, as we must in reason 
 do, all that of which we have knowledge and conscious- 
 ness, and of which we have as yet no systematic 
 science, we shall be led to a conviction that the 
 Creator and Preserver of the material world must also 
 
 
316 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 contain in him such properties and attributes as imply 
 his moral character, and as fall in most consistently 
 with all that we learn in any other way of his pro- 
 vidence and holiness, his justice and mercy. 
 
 I. The sciences which have at present acquired any 
 considerable degree of completeness, are those in 
 which an extensive and varied collection of phenomena, 
 and their proximate causes, have been reduced to a 
 few simple general laws. Such are Astronomy and 
 Mechanics, and perhaps, so far as its physical condi- 
 tions are concerned. Optics. Other portions of human 
 knowledge can be considered as perfect sciences, in any 
 strict sense of the teim, only when they have assumed 
 this form; when the various appearances which they 
 involve are reduced to a few principles, such as the 
 laws of motion and the mechanical properties of tlie 
 luminiferous ether. If we could trace the endless 
 varieties of the forms of crystals, and the compHcated 
 results of chemical composition, to some one compre- 
 hensive law necessaiily pointing out the crystalline 
 form of any given chemical compound. Mineralogy 
 would become an exact science. As yet, however, we 
 can scarcely boast of the existence of any other such 
 sciences than those which we at first mentioned : and 
 so far therefore as we attempt to give definiteness to 
 our conception of tlie Deity, by considering him as the 
 intelligent depositary and executor of laws of nature, 
 we can subordinate to such a mode of conception no' 
 portion of the creation, save the mechanical movements 
 of the universe, and the propagation and properties of 
 light. 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 317 
 
 II. And if we attempt to argue concerning the nature 
 of the laws and relations which govern tliose provinces 
 of creation whither our science has not yet reached, by 
 applying some analogy borrowed from cases where it 
 has been successful, we have no chance of obtainmg 
 any except the most erroneous and worthless guesses. 
 The history of human speculations, as well as the 
 nature of the objects of them, shows how certainly this 
 must happen. The great generalisations which have 
 been established in one department of our knowledge, 
 have been applied in vain to the purpose of throwing 
 light on the otlier portions which still continue in 
 obscurity. When the Newtonian philosoph}' had ex- 
 plained so many mechanical facts, by the two great 
 steps, — of resolving the action of a whole mass into 
 tlie actions of its minutest particles, and considering 
 tliese particles as centres of force, — attempts were 
 naturally soon made to apply the same mode of expla- 
 nation to facts of other different kinds. It was 
 conceived that the whole of natural philosopliy must 
 consist in investigating the laws of force by which 
 2)ai'ticles of different substances attracted and repelled, 
 and thus produced motions, or vibrations to and fi'om 
 the particles. Yet what were the next great discoveries 
 in physics ? The action of a galvanic wire upon a 
 magnet, which is not to attract or repel it, but to turn 
 it to the right and left ; to produce motion, not to or 
 from, but transverse to the line drawn to the acting 
 particles ; and again, the imdulatory theory of light, in 
 which it appeared that the undulations must not be 
 longitudinal, as all philosophers, following th(i analogy 
 
318 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 of all cases previously conceived, had, at first, supposed 
 them to be, but transverse to the path of the ray. 
 Here, though the step from the known to the unknown 
 was comparatively small, when made conjecturally it 
 was made in a direction very wide of the truth. How 
 impossible tlien must it be to attain in this manner to 
 any conception of a law which shall help us to under- 
 stand the whole government of the universe ! 
 
 III. Still, however, in the laws of the luminiferous 
 ether, and of the other fluid, (if it be another fluid) by 
 which galvanism and magnetism are connected, we 
 have something approaching nearly to mechanical 
 action, and, possibly, hereafter to be identified with it. 
 But we cannot turn to any other part of our physical 
 knowledge, without perceiving that the gulf which 
 separates it from the exact sciences is yet wider and 
 more obscure. Who shaU enunciate for us, and in 
 terms of what notions, the general law of chemical 
 composition and decomposition ? Sometimes indeed we 
 give the name of attraction to the affinity by which we 
 suppose the particles of the various ingi-edients of 
 bodies to be aggregated ; but no one can point out any 
 common feature between this and the attractions of 
 which alone we know the exact effects. He who shall 
 discover the true general law of the forces by which 
 elements form compounds, will probably advance as 
 far beyond the discoveries of Newton, as Newton went 
 beyond Aristotle. But who shall say in what direction 
 this vast flight shall be, and what new views it shall 
 open to us of the manner in which matter obeys the 
 law s of the Creator ? 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 319 
 
 IV. But suppose this flight performed ; — we are yet 
 but at the outset of the progress which must carry us 
 towards Him : we have yet to begin to leai^n all that we 
 are to know concerning the ultimate laws of organised 
 bodies. What is the principle of life } What is the 
 rule of that action of which assimilation, secretion, 
 developement, are manifestations ? and which appears 
 to be farther removed from mere chemistry than 
 chemistry is from mechanics. And what again is the 
 new principle, as it seems to be, which is exLdbited in 
 the irritahility of an animal nerve ? — the existence of a 
 sense ? How different is this from all the preceding 
 notions ! No efforts can avoid or conceal the; vast but 
 inscrutable chasm. Those theorists, who have main- 
 tained most strenuously the possibility of tracing the 
 phenomena of animal life to the influence of physical 
 agents, have constantly been obliged to suppose a mode 
 of agency altogether different from any yet known in 
 physics. Thus Lamarck, one of the most noted of 
 such speculators, in describing the course oi his re- 
 searches, says, " I was soon persuaded that the internal 
 sentiment constituted a powder wdiich it was necessary 
 to take into account." And Bichat, another writer on 
 the same subject, while he declares his dissent from 
 Stahl, and the earlier speculators, who had referred 
 everything in the economy of life to a single principle, 
 which they call the anima, the vital principle^ and so 
 forth, himself introduces several principles, or laws, 
 all utteily foreign to the region of physics : namely, 
 organic sensibility, organic contractility, animal sensi' 
 bility, animal contractility, and the like. Supposing 
 
320 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 I I 
 
 II 
 
 such principles really to exist, how far enlarged and 
 changed must our views be before we can conceive 
 these properties, including the faculty of perception, 
 which they imply, to be produced by the will and 
 power of one supreme Being, acting by fixed laws. 
 let without conceiving this, we cannot conceive tlie 
 agency of that Deity who is incessantly thus acting, in 
 countless millions of forms and modes. 
 
 How strongly then does science represent God to us 
 as incomprehensible ! his attributes as unfathomable! 
 His power, his wisdom, his goodness, appear in eacli of 
 the provinces of nature which are thus brought before 
 us ; and in each, the more we study tliem, tlie more 
 impressive, the more admirable do they appear. When 
 then we find these qualities manifested in each of so 
 many successive ways, and each manifestation rising 
 above the preceding by unknown degrees, and through 
 a progression of unknown extent, what other language 
 can we use concerning such attributes than that they 
 are infinite .^ What mode of expression can the most 
 cautious philosopher suggest, other than that He, to 
 wliom we thus endeavour to approach, is infinitely wise, 
 powerful, and good ? 
 
 V. But with sense and consciousness the history 
 of living things only begins. They have instincts, 
 affections, passions, will. How entirely lost and 
 bewildered do we find ourselves when we endeavour to 
 conceive tliese faculties communicated by means of 
 general laws ! Yet they are so communicated from 
 God, and of such laws he is the lawgiver. At what an 
 immeasurable interval is he thus placed above every 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 m 
 
 thing which the creation of the inanimate world alone 
 would imply ; and how far must he transcend all ideas 
 founded on such laws as we find there ! 
 
 VI. But we have still to go further and far higher. 
 The world of reason and of morality is a part of the 
 same creation, as the world of matter and of sense. 
 The will of man is swayed by rational motives; its 
 workings are inevitably compared with a rule of action; 
 he has a conscience which speaks of right and wrong. 
 These are laws of man's nature no less than the laws 
 of his material existence, or his animal impulses. Yet 
 what entirely new conceptions do they involve ? How 
 incapable of being resolved into, or assimilated to, the 
 results of mere matter, or mere sense ! Moral good 
 and evil, merit and demerit, virtue and depravity, if 
 ever they are the subjects of strict science, must belong 
 to a science which views these things, not with reference 
 to time or space, or mechanical causation, not with 
 reference to fluid or ether, nervous irritability or 
 corporeal feeling, but to their own proper modes of 
 conception ; with reference to the relations with wdiich 
 it is possible tliat these notions may be connected, and 
 not to relations suggested by other subjects of a 
 completely extraneous and heterogeneous nature. And 
 according to such relations must the laws of the moral 
 world be apprehended, by any intelligence wliicli con- 
 templates them at all. 
 
 There can be no wider interval in philosophy than 
 the separation which must exist between the hiws of 
 mechanical force and motion, and the laws of free 
 moral action. Yet the tendency of men to assume, in 
 
322 
 
 RELIGIOrS VIEWS. 
 
 the portions of human knowledge which are out of 
 their reach, a similarity of type to those with which 
 they are famiHar, can leap over even this interval. 
 Laplace has asserted that " an inteUigence which, at a 
 given mstant, should know all the forces by which 
 nature is urged, and the respective situation of the 
 beings of which nature is composed, if, moreover, it 
 were sufficiently comprehensive to subject tliese data 
 to calculation, would include in the same formula, the 
 movements of the largest bodies of the universe and 
 those of the sHghtest atom. Nothing w^ould be uncer- 
 tain to such an intelligence, and the future, no less 
 than the past, would be present to its eyes." If we 
 speak merely of mechanical actions, this may perhaps 
 be assumed to be an admissible representation of the 
 nature of their connexion in the sight of the Supreme 
 Intelhgence. But to the rest of what passes in the 
 world, such language is altogether inapplicable. A 
 formula is a brief mode of denoting a rule of calculating 
 in which numbers are to be used: and numerical 
 measures are apphcable only to things of which the 
 relations depend on time and space. By such elements, 
 in such a mode, how are we to estimate happiness and 
 virtue, thought and T\ill ? To speak of a formula with 
 regard to such things, would be to assume that their 
 laws must needs take the shape of those laws of 
 the material world which our intellect most fully 
 comprehends. A more absurd and miphilosophical 
 assumption we can hardly imagine. 
 
 We conceive, therefore, that the laws by which God 
 governs His moral creatures reside in His mind. 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 323 
 
 1 
 
 invested with that kmd of generality, whate\ er it be, of 
 which such laws are capable ; but of the c baracter of 
 such general laws, we know nothing more certainly 
 than this, that it must be altogether different from the 
 character of those laws which regulate the material 
 world. The inevitable necessity of such a total differ- 
 ence is suggested by the analogy of all the knowledge 
 which we possess and all the conceptions which we can 
 form. And, accordingly, no persons, except those 
 whose minds have been biassed by some pe(!uliar habit 
 or com'se of thought, are lilvely to run into the confusion 
 and perplexity which are produced by assimilating too 
 closely the government and direction of voluntary 
 agents to the production of trains of mechanical and 
 physical phenomena. In whatever manner voluntary 
 and moral agency depend upon the Supreme Being, it 
 must be in some such way that they still contmue to 
 bear the character of will, action, and morality. And, 
 though too exclusive an attention to material phe- 
 nomena may sometimes have made physical philo- 
 soi)hers blind to this manifest difference, it has been 
 clearly seen and plainly asserted by those who have 
 taken the most comprehensive views of the nature and 
 tendency of science. " I believe," says Bacon, in his 
 Confession of Faith, " that, at the first the soul of man 
 was not produced by heaven or earth, but was breathed 
 immediately from God : so that the ivays and pro- 
 ceedings of God with sjnrits are not included in nature ; 
 that is in the laws of heaven and earth.; but are 
 reserved to the law of His secret will and grace; 
 wherein God worketh still, and resteth not from the 
 
324 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 325 
 
 work of redemption, as he restetli from the work of 
 creation ; but continueth working to the end of the 
 workl." We may be permitted to observe here, that, 
 when Bacon has thus to speak of God's deahngs with 
 His moral creatures, he does not take his phraseology 
 from those sciences which can offer none but false and 
 delusive analogies ; but helps out the inevitable scanti- 
 ness of our human knowledge, by words borrowed from 
 a source more fitted to supply our imperfections. Our 
 natural speculations cannot carry us to the ideas of 
 'grace' and 'redemption;' but in the wide blank 
 which they leave, of all that concerns our hopes of the 
 Divine support and favom% the inestimable knowledge 
 which revelation, as we conceive, gives us, finds ample 
 room and appropriate place. 
 
 VII. Yet even in the view of our moral constitution 
 which natural reason gives, we may trace laws that 
 imply a personal relation to our Creator. How can we 
 avoid considering that as a true view of man's being 
 and place, without which his best faculties are never 
 fully developed, his noblest energies never called out, 
 his highest point of perfection never reached ? With- 
 out the thought of a God over all, superintending 
 our actions, approving our virtues, transcending our 
 highest conceptions of good, man would never rise to 
 those higher regions of moral excellence which we 
 know him to be capable of attaining. "To deny a 
 God," again says the great philosopher, "destroys 
 magnanimity and the raising of human nature; for 
 take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity 
 and courage he will put on, when he finds himself 
 
 
 1 
 
 maintained by a man ; who, to him, is instead of a God, 
 or melior natura : which courage is manifestly such, as 
 that creature, without that confidence of a better 
 nature than his own, could never attain. So man, 
 when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine 
 protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith, 
 wliich human nature could not obtaui. Therefore, as 
 atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, that it 
 depriveth human nature of the means to exalt itself 
 above human frailty." * 
 
 Such a law, then, of reference to a Supremely Good 
 Being, is impressed upon our nature, as the condition 
 and means of its highest moral advanceiaent. And 
 strange indeed it would be if we should suppose, that 
 in a system where all besides indicates purpose and 
 design, this law should proceed from no such origin ; 
 and no less inconceivable, that such a law, purposely 
 impressed upon man to purify and elevate his nature, 
 should delude and deceive him. 
 
 VIII. Nothing remains, therefore, but that the 
 Creator, who, for pm-poses that even we can see to be 
 wise and good, has impressed upon man this disposition 
 to look to him for support, for advancement, for such 
 happiness as is reconcilable with holiness ; — this 
 tendency to believe Him to be the union of all per- 
 fection, the highest point of aU intellectual and moral 
 excellence ; — is in reality such a guardian and judge* 
 such a good, and wise, and perfect Being, as we thus 
 irresistibly conceive Him. It would indeed be extra- 
 vagant to assert that the imagination of the creature, 
 
 * Bacon. Essay on Atheism. 
 
326 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 itself the work of God, can invent a higher point of 
 goodness, of justice, of holiness, than the Creator 
 Himself possesses : that the Eternal Mind, from whom 
 our notions of good and right are derived, is not Him- 
 self directed by the rules which these notions imx)ly. 
 
 It is difficult to dwell steadily on such thoughts: 
 but they will at least serve to confirm the reflection 
 which it was our object to illustrate; namely, how 
 incomparably the nature of God must be elevated 
 above any conceptions which our natui'al reason enables 
 us to form : and we have been led to these views, it 
 ^vill be recollected, by following the clue of which 
 science gave us the beginning. The Divine Mind 
 must be conceived by us as the seat of those laws of 
 nature which we have discovered. It must be no less 
 the seat of those laws which we have not yet discovered, 
 though these may and must be of a character far 
 different from anything we can guess. The Supreme 
 Intelligence must therefore contain the laws, each 
 according to their true dependence, of organic life, 
 of sense of animal impulse, and must contain also the 
 purpose and intent for which these powers were put in 
 play. But the Governing Mind must comprehend also 
 the laws of the responsible creatures which the world 
 contains, and must entertain the purposes for which 
 tlieir responsible agency was given them. It must 
 include these laws and purposes, connected by means 
 of the notions, wliich responsibility implies, of desert 
 and reward, of moral excellence in various degrees, and 
 of well-being as associated with right doing. All the 
 laws which govern the moral world are expressions of 
 
 I 
 
 INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 
 
 327 
 
 the thought and intentions of our Supreme Ruler. All 
 the contrivances for moral no less than for jihysical 
 good, for the peace of mind, and other rewards of 
 vktue, for the elevation and purification of individual 
 character, for tlie civilisation and refinement of states, 
 their advancement in intellect and virtue, for the 
 diffusion of good, and tlie repression of evil : all the 
 blessings that wait on perseverance and energy in a 
 good cause; on unquenchable love of mankind, and 
 unconquerable devotedness to truth ; on piuity and 
 self-denial ; on faith, hope, and charity ; — all these 
 things are indications of the character, will, and future 
 intentions of that God, of whom we have endeavoured 
 to track the footsteps upon earth, and to show His 
 handiwork in the heavens. " This God is our God, 
 for ever and ever." And if, endeavouring to trace 
 the plan of the vast labyrinth of laws by v^hich the 
 universe is governed, we are sometimes lost and 
 bewildered, and can scarcely, or not at all, discern the 
 lines by which pain, and sorrow, and vice, fall in with 
 a scheme directed to the strictest right and greatest 
 good, we yet find no room to faint or falter ; knowing 
 that these are the darkest and most tangled recesses 
 of our knowledge ; that into them science has as yet 
 cast no ray of light ; that in them reason lias as yet 
 caught sight of no general law by wliich we may 
 securely hold: while, in those regions where we can 
 see clearly, where . science has thrown her strongest 
 illumination upon the scheme of creation; where we 
 have had displayed to us the general laws which give 
 rise to all the multifarious variety of particulai* facts; — 
 
 yyy^' 
 
328 
 
 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 
 
 Tnd^U tf '"" "' f'*'"' '""^ ^^™-^' -<! beauty : 
 and aU tliis wise selection of mean^ +hic i • 
 
 1 • i- « iiieans, tnis liarinonion«; 
 
 combination of law«; ihi^ i.^^ ^-r i "-^Axaumoub 
 
 +• A' 7 i^ ' ^^ beautiful symmetry of rela- 
 
 Suln fL"^ \,t'''""f ' ''^ ^"^^ preservation, the 
 
 thtur:/ "'^" °^ '^'"^^ ^^"^g t'^i^g^. which, 
 
 doubf tote r "t" "' "^^'^^ ^^ ^^^^l*^' - --" 
 doubt to be the worthiest objects of the Creator's care 
 
 THE END. 
 
 I-ONDOX : 
 ImADOUBV AND KVAN.S, PRINTERS, WHITEFRI. 
 
 AUS. 
 
 /I 
 
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