"The view of nature, which is the immediate object of sense, is very imperfect, and of a small extent; but, by the assistance of art, and the help of our reason, is enlarged till it loses itself in an infinity on either hand. The immensity of things on the one side, and their minuteness on the other, carry them equally out of our reach, and conceal from us the far greater and more noble part of physical operations. As magnitude of every sort, abstractly considered, is capable of being increased to infinity, and is also divisible without end; so we find that in nature the limits of the greatest and least dimensions of things are actually placed at an immense distance from each other. We can perceive no bounds of the vast expanse in which natural causes operate, and can fix no border or termination of the universe; and we are equally at a loss when we endeavour to trace things to their elements, and to discover the limits which conclude the subdivisions of matter. The objects which we commonly call great, vanish when we contemplate the vast body of the earth: the terraqueous globe itself is soon lost in the solar system: in some parts it is seen as a distant star: in great part it is unknown, or visible only at rare times to vigilant observers, assisted, perhaps, with an art like to that by which Galileo was enabled to discover so many new parts of the system. The sun itself dwindles into a star; Saturn's vast orbit, and the orbits of all comets crowd into a point, when viewed from numberless places between the earth and the nearest fixed stars. Other suns kindle light to illuminate other systems, where our sun's rays are unperceived; but they are also swallowed up in the vast expanse. Even all the systems of the stars that sparkle in the clearest sky,

must possess a small corner only of that space over which such systems are dispersed, since more stars are discovered in one constellation by the telescope, than the naked eye perceives in the whole heavens. After we have risen so high, and left all definite measures so far behind us, we find ourselves no nearer to a term or limit; for all this is nothing to what may be displayed in the infinite expanse, beyond the remotest stars that ever have been discovered.

If we descend in the scale of nature towards the other limit, we find a like gradation from minute objects to others incomparably more subtile, and are led as far below sensible measures as we were before carried above them, by similar steps that soon become hid to us in equal obscurity. We have ground to believe, that these subdivisions of matter have a termination, and that the elementary particles of bodies are solid and uncompounded, so as to undergo no alteration in the various operations of nature or of art. But from mi croscopical observations that discover animals, thousands of which could scarce form a particle perceptible to the unassisted sense, each of which has its proper vessels, and fluids circulating in those vessels; from the propagation, nourishment, and growth of those animals; from the subtilty of the effluvia of bodies retaining their particular properties after so prodigious a rarifaction; from many astonishing experiments of chemists; and especially from the inconceivable minuteness of the particles of light, that find a passage equally in all directions through the pores of transparent bodies, and from the contrary properties of the different sides of the same ray; it appears that the subdivisions of the particles of bodies descend by a number of steps or degrees that surpass all imagina

tion, and that nature is inexhaustible by us on every side.

Nor is it in the magnitude of bodies only that this endless gradation is to be observed. Of motions, some are performed in moments of time, others are finished in very long periods; some are too slow, others too swift, to be perceptible by us. The tracing the chain of causes is the most noble pursuit of philosophy; but we meet with no cause but what is itself to be considered as an effect, and are able to number but few links of the chain. In every kind of magnitude, there is a degree or sort to which our sense is proportioned, the perception and knowledge of which is of the greatest use to mankind. The same is the ground work of philosophy; for though all sorts and degrees are equally the object of philosophical speculation, yet it is from those which are proportioned to sense, that a philosopher must set out in his inquiries, ascending or descending afterwards as his pursuits may require. He does well indeed to take his views from many points of sight, and supply the defects of sense by a well regulated imagination; nor is he to be confined by any limit in space or time: but as his knowledge of nature is founded on the observation of sensible things, he must begin with these, and must often return to them to examine his progress by them. Here is his secure hold; and as he sets out from thence, so if he likewise trace not often his steps backwards with caution, he will be in hazard of losing his way in the labyrinths of nature.

"From this short view of nature, and of the situation of man, considered as a spectator of its phenomena, and as an inquirer into its constitution, we may form some judgment of the project of those, who, in composingtheir systems, begin at the summit of the scale, and

then by clear ideas pretend to descend through all its steps with great pómp and facility, so as in one view to explain all things. The processes in experimental philosophy are carried on in a different manner; the beginnings are less lofty, but the scheme improves as we arise from particular observations to more general and more just views. It must be owned, indeed, that philosophy would be perfect, if our view of nature, from the common objects of sense to the limits of the universe upwards, and to the elements of things downwards, was complete; and the power or causes that. operate in the whole were known. But if we compare the extent of this scheme with the powers of mankind we shall be obliged to allow the necessity of taking it into parts, and of proceeding with all the caution and care we are capable of, in inquiring into each part. When we perceive such wonders, as naturalists have discovered in the minutest objects, shall we pretend to describe so easily the productions of infinite power in space, that is at the same time infinitely extended and infinitely divisible! Surely we may rather imagine that in the whole there will be matter for the inquiries and perpetual admiration of much more perfect beings." Maclaurin's Account of Newton's Philosophical Discoveries, p. 15.

It is thus, O GREAT author of all things, PARENT OF LIFE, and SUPREME GOVERNOR of the world, we discover thee in thy works! Dark clouds rest upon· thy hallowed and inaccessible habitation: but the beams of glory, darted from the eternal throne of thy divine majesty, shine around us on every side. We cannot with our mortal eyes behold thy presence; we cannot even look stedfastly upon the orb of day, thy glorious emblem: but we can in every part of the globe

trace the plain vestiges of thy power, thy wisdom, and thy benevolence. Wherever a plant takes root and flourishes, wherever an animal appears, there art thou plainly discoverable. In the depths of the Pacific Ocean, in the boundless wilds of Africa, upon the snowy summits of the Alps, and along the vast range of the stupendous Andes, thou mayest be traced. Thy power and thy wisdom are evident in the formation of the fragrant rose, and the towering oak; in the gentle lamb, and the roaring lion; in the melodious nightingale, and the rapacious vulture. The exquisite construction of their respective parts proves the unskilfulness of man, even in his most elaborate productions and demonstrates thy admirable invention. Compared with thy works, how small, imperfect, and trifling are all the labours of art! since all that thou doest is marked with consummate skill and excellence. Thou hast concealed from our strictest and most persevering examination a knowledge of their essence; and as that knowledge would neither minister more abundantly to our comforts, nor augment our happiness, thy universal benevolence is displayed in what thou deniest, as well as in what thou givest. In thy hands matter is supple, and prompt to receive every impression. At thy command it is formed into images, the most strongly marked by character, and the most varied by form-from the stern lineaments and shaggy covering of the lion, to the soft plumage and delicate shape of the dove. Thou hast impressed a never failing symmetry upon every created being of the same species, and endowed it with the same properties; and this unchanging execution and perpetuity of thy original design proves to us the undeviating regularity of thy plans. The same principles of fecundity produce