and regulated. The same thing may take place in contemplating the structure of organized bodies. So much of mere mechanical power enters into every process of their formation, growth, and preservation, that, although it does seem to be the blindness of utter stupidity to deny to these productions unequivocal marks of wise and beneficent design, it is possible to conceive, that, in tracing the mere physical laws by which their various properties are governed, the cold calculations of a contracted mind may proceed no further. On turning from these appearances of external nature, to the operations of rational creatures, such minds may be led to admire the wisdom which contrives, and the power and skill which executes, the various plans of life, without directing one serious thought beyond the intelligence of the immediate agent. But it requires a still greater degree of obtuseness and of obstinacy, to resist the evidence of a designing and bountiful Creator, in the wonders of instinct. These are altogether independent of reasoning powers, and impel organized beings, by a sagacity, obviously not their own, to compass important ends, which, though essential to the welfare, and even to the very existence, not only of the individual, but of the species, could not, by any possibility, be within their contemplation, being far beyond the range of their limited faculties. Here, then, there is a designing cause, distinct from, and superior to, the agent; and this is the more clearly discernible, because its operations are governed by other than mere mechanical powers. "I look upon

instinct," says Addison, "as upon the principle of gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor upon any laws of mechanism; but, according to the best notions of the greatest philosophers, is an immediate impression from the First Mover, and the Divine energy acting in the creatures; such an operation of the Supreme Being as that which determines all the portions of matter to their proper centre."

SEVENTH WEEK-SUNDAY.

ON SEEING GOD IN HIS WORKS:

ALMOST all men, not in the lowest stages of barbarism or degradation, are capable of admiring the beauties of Nature. Even the dullest and most unreflecting mind is, at times, more or less vividly impressed with the wonderful skill and beauty so profusely scattered over all creation. But the intelligent eye is always delighted, and frequently kindled into rapture, by the rich and splendid scenery that on every side solicits its attention. Our susceptibility of impressions of grandeur or beauty, deserves to be ranked among our original faculties; for it is observable in all classes of the human family,-refined and exalted in the bosom of the enlightened European, and not unfelt by the savage tenant of the African or American desert. A love of Nature appears to be implanted in man, to feed the flame of religion in his soul,to assist in leading him from the wonderfully contrived objects around him to a belief in an intelligent and bountiful Creator. We are told in Holy Scripture, that God never left Himself without a witness to the human race, inasmuch as His power and goodness may be always clearly known from the exuberant plenty and beauty scattered over the earth, their magnificent abode. As they had hearts to feel a sentiment of gratitude for bounty lavishly bestowed, and understandings to reason from effects to causes, the ancient heathen were altogether inexcusable in not knowing the true God, the great First Cause of all, and the source of 66 every good and perfect gift." They wandered from the right way, only because they were heedless or wilfully perverse. Their feelings and powers became the instruments of their selfdelusion; and, instead of seeing in Nature a supreme and infinite God, they saw a thousand grovelling divinities;

and fancy lent all the fascinations of poetry to their corrupt and irrational mythology.

But if the heathen, who lived in times of rudeness and ignorance, were subject to condemnation for abusing their faculties and opportunities, how much more guilty are we in not seeing God in all his works? How much more worthy of punishment are we, if we turn not into their proper and legitimate channel that sympathy with external nature, and that instinctive admiration of the grand and the beautiful, with which we are endowed ? The question is not, Do we, like the heathen of ancient or modern times, believe in a polytheism, and people, with the vain creatures of our imagination, the regions of the land and the sea? for we at once, unintelligibly, perhaps, and, as it were, mechanically, assent to the received truth,-There is one God; and we also readily acquiesce in the grave lessons that may be read us by some pious student of the book of Nature. But the in

quiry to be made of our own hearts is, Do we habitually see the Creator in His works, and associate His glorious perfections with every witnessed specimen of His skill? We luxuriate in the glowing summer landscape; we there admire the universal flush of inanimate nature; we listen, with delight, to the sweet singing of birds, and the mingling murmurs of winds and streams: But do we straightway lift up our eyes to heaven in adoring gratitude, and own a God around us? or do all our feelings but minister to a luxurious sensibility, and evaporate in some poetic dream? When we survey, by night, the starry heaven, and direct our telescope to those countless worlds that there crowd upon the vision, are we lost in devout admiration of the wondrous universe of God? or do we merely resign ourselves to those emotions of sublimity that such a magnificent scene is so well fitted to awaken? We are too apt and too habituated to behold the glories of creation, without looking further. We are satisfied with a vague sentimental feeling of beauty, and think not of that Hand from which all beauty flows. We are struck with the endless adaptations of the material world, but we do not always raise our thoughts to

the great Designer. We analyze and admire the splendid machinery of the heavens, but we recognise not the matchless power of the Mechanist. We philosophize, we speculate, we declaim, on the structure of a flower, or the mechanism of a planetary system, but only talk the while of Nature and her works, as if Nature -a mere fashioned mass of inert matter-were the parent of all things, and the grand object of our worship.

Would we read the book of Nature aright, and see God in His works, we must have recourse to the book of Revelation; for these two great volumes, written by the same Hand, and for a similar purpose, cast a strong light upon each other. As the book of Nature, by the visible impress of Divinity stamped upon it, is fitted to prepare us for the more glorious display of the Divine perfections contained in the book of Revelation,—so is this latter the truest and safest guide to the profitable perusal of the former. In the Bible, the great productions and aspects of nature are always mentioned in connexion with the glory of God. They are introduced, often in strains of the boldest poetry, to teach the infinite power and goodness of Jehovah. We there find the noblest descriptions of natural objects ever penned; and one great moral runs through them all. Every masterly picture of the grand or the beautiful in nature, is but a delineation of God's wondrous attributes.

It is, therefore, a positive duty, sublimely taught us both by precept and example, to cherish a sense of the infinite skill and bounty displayed in creation. We should associate, with all that attracts the eye by its beauty, or excites our admiration by its delicate structure, the liveliest expressions of adoration and gratitude. Every survey of natural scenery, every examination of even the smallest of God's works, should be to us a devotional exercise. To a mind accustomed to consecrate all its perceptions of beauty and design to the inward worship of God, every mountain and field, every leaf and flower, teems with instruction. The tiny wing of the ephemeral insect, as well as the noblest animal form, affords food for the loftiest admiration. The man of true

piety and refined feeling, enjoys the beauties of Nature with the keenest relish; for Nature is but a pictured volume in which he reads the character of the Divinity. Every object that meets his eye, be it vast or minute, simple or complex, suggests exalted conceptions of Him "Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing,

And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds."

All our feelings and intellectual powers should be devoted to the glory of God, their Author and their End. Our purest sympathies, our liveliest sensations, our most exquisite perceptions, are due to His worship, and are all originally fitted to exalt our conception of His character. To behold the wonderful scene in which we are placed, with the eye of reason, and with feelings of elevated devotion, is both our duty and our privilege. When we contemplate, therefore, the heavens, with the sun, moon, and stars, which God has ordained,—the earth, with all its array of plants and flowers, and animated beings, the sea, with its multitude of waves and living forms, let us gratefully adore the Almighty Creator, and exclaim, with the Psalmist, "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" J. D.

SEVENTH WEEK-MONDAY.

REASON IN THE LOWER ANIMALS.

INSTINCT, if the definition which I have given of it in my paper of Saturday be correct, will not account for all the operations of the lower animals. Instinct is uni

form. It belongs to all the species nearly in the same degree. The young possess it as soon as they are produced; or, at least, as soon as their bodily powers will enable them to employ it, in as great perfection as the old. It is not communicated by instruction; it is not