stone, marble, lime-stone, fossils, coals, peat, and similar materials. In these strata are found metals and minerals of various descriptionssalt, nitrate of potash, ammonia, sulphur, bitumen, platina, gold, silver, mercury, iron, lead, tin, copper, zinc, nickel, manganeze, cobalt, antimony, the diamond, rubies, sapphires, jaspers, emeralds, and a countless variety of other substances, of incalculable benefit to mankind. Some of these substances are so essentially requisite for the comfort of man, that, without them, he would soon degenerate into the savage state, and be deprived of all those arts which extend his knowledge, and which cheer and embellish the abodes of civilized life.

If we turn our eyes upward to the regions of the atmosphere, we may also behold a spectacle of variegated magnificence. Sometimes the sky is covered with sable clouds, or obscured with mists; at other times it is tinged with a variety of hues, by the rays of the rising or the setting sun. Sometimes it presents a pure azure, at other times it is diversified with strata of dappled clouds. At one time we behold the rainbow rearing its majestic arch, adorned with all the colors of light; at another, the aurora borealis illuminating the sky with its fantastic corruscations. At one time we behold the fiery meteor sweeping through the air; at another, we perceive the forked lightning darting from the clouds, and hear the thunders rolling through the sky. Sometimes the vault of heaven appears like a boundless desert, and at other times adorned with an innumerable host of stars, and with the moon "walking in brightness." In short, whether we direct our view to the vegetable or the animal tribes, to the atmosphere, the ocean, the mountains, the plains, or the subterranean recesses of the globe, we behold a scene of beauty, order, and variety, which astonishes and enraptures the contemplative mind, and constrains us to join in the devout exclamations of the psalmist, "How manifold are thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches; so is the great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping, innumerable, both small and great beasts."

This countless variety of objects which appears throughout every department of our sublunary system, not only displays the depths of Divine wisdom, but also presents us with a faint idea of the infinity of the Creator, and of the immense multiplicity of ideas and conceptions which must have existed in the Eternal Mind, when the fabric of our globe, and its numerous tribes of inhabitants, were arranged and brought into existence. And, if every other world which floats in the immensity of space be diversified with a similar variety of existence, altogether different from ours, (as we have reason to believe, from the variety we already perceive, and from the boundless plans and conceptions of the Creator,) the human mind is lost and confounded when it attempts to form an idea of those endlessly diversified plans, conceptions, and views, which must have existed during an eternity past in the Divine mind. When we would attempt to enter into the conception of so vast and varied operations, we feel our own littleness, and the narrow limits of our feeble powers, and can only exclaim, with the Apostle Paul, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His counsels, and His ways of creation and providence past finding out!"

This characteristic of variety, which is stamped on all the works of

Omnipotence, is, doubtless, intended to gratify the principle of curiosity, and the love of novelty, which are implanted in the human breast; and thus to excite rational beings to the study and investigation of the works of the Creator, that therein they may behold the glory of the Divine character, and be stimulated to the exercise of love, admiration, and reverence. For as the records of revelation, and the dispensations of Providence, display to us the various aspects of the moral character of Deity, so the diversified phenomena, and the multiplicity of objects and operations which the scenery of nature exhibits, present to us a specimen of the ideas, as it were, of the Eternal Mind, in so far as they can be adumbrated by material objects, and exhibited to mortals, through the medium of corporeal organs.

To convey an adequate conception of the number of these ideas, as exhibited on the globe in which we live, would baffle the arithmetician's skill, and set his numbers at defiance. We may, however, assist our conceptions a little, by confining our attention to one department of nature; for example, the ANIMAL KINGDOM. The number of the different species of animals, taking into account those which are hitherto undiscovered, and those which are invisible to the naked eye, cannot be estimated at less than 300,000. In a human body there are reckoned about 446 muscles, in each of which, according to anatomists, there are, at least, 10 several intentions or due qualifications to be observed-its proper figure, its just magnitude, the right disposition of its several ends, upper and lower, the position of the whole, the insertion of its proper nerves, veins, arteries, &c, so that in the muscular system alone there are 4,460 several ends or aims to be attended to. The bones are reckoned to be in number about 245, and the distinct scopes or intentions of each of these are above 40; in all, about 9,800; so that the system of bones and muscles alone, without taking any other parts into consideration, amounts to above 14,000 different intentions or adaptations. If now, we suppose, that all the species of animals above stated are differently constructed, and taken one with another contain, at an average, a system of bones and muscles as numerous as in the human body, the number of species must be multiplied by the number of different aims or adaptations, and the product will amount to 4,200,000,000. If we were next to attend to the many thousands of blood vessels in an animal body, and the numerous ligaments, membranes, humors, and fluids of various descriptions-the skin, with its millions of pores, and every other part of an organical system, with the aims and intentions of each, we should have another sum of many hundreds of millions to be multiplied by the former product, in order to express the diversified ideas which enter into the construction of the animal world. And, if we still farther consider, that of the hundreds of millions of individuals belonging to each species, no two individuals exactly resemble each other-that all the myriads of vegetables with which the earth is covered are distinguished from each other by some one characteristic or another-and that every grain of sand contained in the mountains, and in the bed of the ocean, as shown by the microscope, discovers a different form and configuration from another-we are here presented with an image of the infinity of the conceptions of Him, in whose incomprehensible mind they all existed, during countless ages, before the universe was formed.

To overlook this amazing scene of Divine intelligence, or to consider it as beneath our notice, as some have done-if it be not the characteristic of impiety, is at least the mark of a weak and indiscriminating mind. The man who disregards the visible displays of infinite wisdom, or who neglects to investigate them when opportunity offers, acts as if he considered himself already possessed of a sufficient portion of intelligence, and stood in no need of sensible assistances to direct his conceptions of the Creator. Pride, and false conceptions of the nature and design of true religion, frequently lie at the foundation of all that indifference and neglect with which the visible works of God are treated, by those who make pretensions to a high degree of spiritual attainments. The truly pious man will trace, with wonder and delight, the footsteps of his Father and his God, wherever they appear in the variegated scene of creation around him, and will be filled with sorrow and contrition of heart, that, amid his excursions and solitary walks, he has so often disregarded the "works of the Lord, and the operation of His hands."

In fine, the variety which appears on the face of nature, not only enlarges our conceptions of infinite wisdom, but is also the foundation of all our discriminations and judgments as rational beings, and is of the most essential utility in the affairs of human society. Such is the variety of which the features of the human countenance are susceptible, that it is probable that no two individuals of all the millions of the race of Adam, that have existed since the beginning of time, would be found to resemble each other. We know no two human beings presently existing, however similar to each other, but may be distinguished either by their stature, their forms, or the features of their faces; and on the ground of this dissimilarity, the various wheels of the machine of society move onward without clashing or confusion. Had it been otherwise had the faces of men, and their organs of speech, been cast exactly in the same mould, as would have been the case had the world been framed, according to the Epicurean system, by blind chance directing a concourse of atoms, it might have been as difficult to distinguish one human countenance from another, as to distinguish the eggs laid by the same hen, or the drops of water which trickle from the same orifice; and, consequently, society would have been thrown into a state of universal anarchy and confusion. Friends would not have been distinguished from enemies, villains from the good and honest, fathers from sons, the culprit from the innocent person, nor the branches of the same family from one another. And what a scene of perpetual confusion and disturbance would thus have been created! Frauds, thefts, robberies, murders, assassinations, forgeries, and injustice of all kinds, might have been daily committed without the least possibility of detection. Nay, were even the variety of tones in the human voice, peculiar to each person, to cease, and the hand writing of all men to become perfectly uniform, a multitude of distressing deceptions and perplexities would be produced in the domestic, civil, and commercial transactions of mankind. But the all-wise and beneficent Creator has prevented all such evils and inconveniencies, by the character of variety which He has impressed on the human species, and on all His works. By the peculiar features of his countenance every man may be distinguished in the light; by the tones of his voice he may be recognized

in the dark, or when he is separated from his fellows by an impenetrable partition; and his hand writing can attest his existence and individuality, when continents and oceans interpose between him and his relations, and be a witness of his sentiments and purposes to future generations.'

Like the industrious bee, which gathers its honey from every opening flower, Mr. Dick ranges through the whole field of human science, explores, so far as the lights of knowledge will conduct him, every part of the creation of God, to illustrate his subject, and to confirm the Christian in the devout sentiment, that all these things are

'but the varied God.'

It cannot be expected, however, that we should follow him in this short review through his entire circuit of natural and civil history, geography, astronomy, geology, natural philosophy, and chemistry, from each of which he deduces arguments from the undoubted facts which are developed by these several branches of science in favor of his general theme. We cannot withhold, however, from our readers the following instructive reflections on the study of the works of the Almighty as they are seen in the volume of natural history :

Thus it appears, that the universe extends to infinity on either hand; and that wherever matter exists, from the ponderous globes of heaven down to the invisible atom, there the almighty Creator has prepared habitations for countless orders of existence, from the seraph to the animalculæ, in order to demonstrate His boundless beneficence, and the infinite variety of modes by which He can diffuse happiness through the universal system.

"How sweet to muse upon His skill display'd!

Infinite skill! in all that He has made;

To trace in nature's most minute design
The signature and stamp of power Divine;
Contrivance exquisite, express'd with ease,
Where unassisted sight no beauty sees;
The shapely limb and lubricated joint,
Within the small dimensions of a point;
Muscle and nerve miraculously spun,

His mighty work who speaks, and it is done,
Th' invisible in things scarce seen reveal'd;

To whom an atom is an ample field."-Cowper's Retirement.

With regard to the religious tendency of the study of natural history, it may be remarked, that, as all the objects which it embraces are the workmanship of God, the delineations and descriptions of the natural historian must be considered as "the history of the operations of the Creator;" or, in other words, so far as the science extends, "the history of the Creator himself:" for the marks of His incessant agency, His power, wisdom, and beneficence are impressed on every object, however minute, throughout the three kingdoms of nature, and throughout every region of earth, air, and sky. As the Deity is invisible to mortal eyes, and cannot be directly contemplated by finite minds,

without some material medium of communication, there are but two mediums with which we are acquainted by which we can attain a knowledge of His nature and perfections. These are either the facts which have occurred in the course of His providential dispensations toward our race since the commencement of time, and the moral truths connected with them-or the facts which are displayed in the economy of nature. The first class of facts is recorded in the sacred history, and in the annals of nations; the second class is exhibited in the diversified objects and motions which appear throughout the system of the visible universe. The one may be termed the moral history, and the other the natural history of the operations of the Creator. It is obviously incumbent on every rational being to contemplate the Creator through both these mediums; for each of them conveys its distinct and peculiar revelations; and, consequently, our perception of Deity through the one medium does not supersede the necessity of our contemplating Him through the other. While, therefore, it is our duty to contemplate the perfections, the providence, and the agency of God, as displayed in the Scripture revelation, it is also incumbent upon us to trace His attributes in the system of nature, in order that we may be enabled to contemplate the eternal Jehovah in every variety of aspect, in which He has been pleased to exhibit himself, in the universe He has formed.

And

The visible creation may be considered as a permanent and sensible manifestation of Deity, intended every moment to present to our view the unceasing energies of Him" in whom we live and move." if the train of our thoughts were directed in its proper channel, we would perceive God in every object and in every movement: we would behold Him operating in the whirlwind, and in the storm; in the subterraneous cavern, and in the depths of the ocean; in the gentle rain, and the refreshing breeze; in the rainbow, the fiery meteor, and the lightning's flash; in the splendors of the sun, and the majestic movements of the heavens; in the frisking of the lambs, the songs of birds, and the buzz of insects; in the circulation of our blood, the movements of our joints, the motion of our eyeballs, and in the rays of light which are continually darting from surrounding objects for the purposes of vision. For these, and ten thousand other agencies in the systems of nature, are nothing else but the voice of Deity, proclaiming to the sons of men in silent, but emphatic language," Stand still, and consider the wonderful works of God!"

If, then, it be admitted, that the study of nature is the study of the Creator-to overlook the grand and beautiful scenery with which we are surrounded, or to undervalue any thing which Infinite Wisdom has formed, is to overlook and contemn the Creator Himself. Whatever God has thought proper to create, and to present to our view in the visible world, it becomes man to study and contemplate, that from thence he may derive motives to excite him to the exercise of reverence and adoration, of gratitude and praise. In so far as any individual is unacquainted with the various facts of the history of nature, in so far does he remain ignorant of the manifestations of Deity; for every object on the theatre of the universe exhibits His character and designs in a different point of view. He who sees God only as He displays Himself in His operations on the earth, but has never contemplated the firmament with the eye of reason, must be unacquainted with those