nature and wonderful ceconomy has been cultivated with unremitting
ardour. Some authors have confined themfelves to
divide and feparate them into various dalles, and defcribe their
charaderiftic differences : others have been employed in tracing
their habits of life, or in exploring the wonderou s mechanifm of
their frame and ftrudure ; fo that the nature, habits, and many
peculiarities o f their Hate o f life, are now well known.
In number, Angularity o f appearance, and variety o f form,
infeds exceed every other part o f animated nature. Earth, air,
and water,- are filled with holts thereof a far greater part of which
are mvifible to the naked eye ; but among!! all this variety, we
perceive the fame regularity, and can trace the footfteps o f that
love and wifdom which fo ftrongly marks every work o f God.
In contemplating the works o f the Creator, we lhall always find
his wifdom and his love in pages written by his own eternal hand,
in charaders legible to every eye.
After an attentive examination of the nature and fabric o f both
the lealt and large!! animals, I cannot (lays the truly great and
moft excellent Swammerdam) but allow the lefs an equal, perhaps
a fuperior, degree of dignity. Whoever duly confiders the
condud and infi inct of the one, with the manners and adions o f
the other, mull acknowledge all are under the diredion and con-
troul of a fupreme and particular intelligence ; which, as in the
•large!! it extends beyond the limits o f our comprehenfion, efcapes
our refearches in the fmalleft. If, while we diffed with care the
larger animals, we are filled with wonder at the elegant dif-
pofition o f their limbs, thé inimitable order of their mufcles,
and the regular direction of their veins, arteries, and nerves; to
whajt
what an height is our aftonifhment raifed, when we difcover all
thefe parts arranged in the Ieaft, in the fame regular manner.
How is it poffible but what we muft Hand amazed, when we
refled that thofe little animals, whofe bodies are fmaller than the
point o f the difleding knife, have mufcles, veins, arteries, and
every other part common to the larger animals ? Creatures fo
very diminutive, that our hands are not delicate enough to
manage, nor our eyes fufficiently acute to fee them.
All beings are perfed, confidered in themfelves: they all
anfwer one end. The determinations or qualities of each being
are the means relative to this end. Thofe means which are of
an exalted nature anfwer a nobler or higher purpofe. The
meafure o f perfedion confifts in the relation which every being
bears to the whole.
When confidered with refped to the Creator, all creatures are
upon a le ve l; and yet, as creatures, even the moft defpicable
bear fuch relation to their Creator, as to make them highly valuable
to their fellow-creatures, who are themfelves only valuable
by fharing and partaking o f the Divine influence. As the harmony
and infinity o f the eternal Artift are impreffed on all his
works and as outwardly we can find no bounds, fo inwardly we
can. find no end of art and beauty. “ Let us then not flight or
deem that little, in which immenfity is fo confpicuous ; or that
trivial, in which there is fuch a manifeftation of infinite wifdom
and power * but let us rather
. X ' “ Mufe
* Brooke’s Univerfal Beauty, a poem.