tendons are appended, by the operation of which the movements of the several parts of this curious machinery are innumerable. How well adapted is the hand to give a sudden stroke or a delicate touch, a tenacious grasp or a gentle pressure; it can take up by the points of its fingers. the finest needle, or by the application of both hands embrace and hold fast a circumference of several feet, and all the intermediate dimensions. How fine and rapid are the movements, how astonishing the accuracy with which the fingers fly over the strings of a harp or the keys of a piano; and how exquisite must be working of the nerves, and muscles, and tendons, and bones, and joints of the hand, this "instrument of instruments!" By means of such an instrument, under such guidance, the power of an individual is multiplied almost indefinitely; the hammer, the axe, and the saw, made and employed by the human hand, produce effects which would defy the strength of the lion, and to which the gigantic might of the elephant would be but infantile weakness. In possession of the mechanical forces, and with the knowledge of chemical combinations, one individual commands the power of a host. Thus before man all living creatures bow, and pay to him their homage and their service. The fiercest animals are subdued, the wildest tamed, and whatever any of them possess that can minister to the convenience or comfort of man is seized and appropriated by him. Neither the flight of the eagle, nor the fleetness of the antelope, nor the vast bulk of the whale amid the polar ice, gives security from the power of manof man, weak and feeble as he is, but armed with reason and a hand.

Now does it look like chance, or design, that there should be this adjustment of the hand to the mind, that the perfection of the instrument should be in such accordance with the power of the agent which is to employ it? Are we to

be told that the power of genius, and the varied and astonishing capabilities of the human intellect, are nothing but the combinations, and affinities, and movements of oxygen, azote, hydrogen, and carbon, accidentally happening to meet in such a condition as to originate thought and all the phenomena of mind? And that to match with this sensorial organization, separate combinations of similar elements happened as accidentally to form a humerus, to fit with its extremity the cavity of the scapula and to work in it, and also a forearm with its ulna, and radius, and hinge joint, and the curious bones of the wrist, and those of the hand, and fingers, and thumb? Did ever any romance of the wildest extravagance imagine such a concurrence of fortunate accidents as must have happened in this case?—That all the bones and joints should have fitted each other; that the shoulder should not have had the articulation of the bones of the wrist, nor that of the elbow; that the hand should be divided into fingers, and these into so many joints; that there should be a thumb, and of such a strength compared to the fingers, and that it should not have been on a line with the fingers, which would have rendered the whole hand useless, or nearly so, and that not one joint should fail of its ligaments, or its tendons, and muscles, not only to move it in one direction, but to bring it back again to its former position; that an arm with such an hand should be placed on each side, to be able to act with each other, and that just under the inspection of the eye, and subject to its guidance, that these and a thousand things besides, each one of which was essential to the completion of such an instrument, should have happened, without any wisdom, or design, or intention, to meet, so as to form the hand what it is, supposes such a combination of fortunate occurrences as the most exuberant imagination never brought together, in the most marvellous fiction that ever made credulity stare!

We were to produce instances in man's relation to external nature, of evident design, in order to prove that a wisdom as well as a power to which we can assign no limits, was employed in these arrangements, on which the existence. and well-being of the human race depend; we think such instances have been produced in such variety, and of a nature so convincing, as cannot, by all the sophistry of infidelity, be explained on any other principle than that of the existence of an all-wise and powerful Creator. We shall now, therefore, proceed to the last view which we proposed to take of man; this will extend the adaptations of a designing wisdom to THE RELATION OF THAT WORLD WHICH HE

INHABITS TO THE GREAT SYSTEM OF WHICH IT FORMS Ꭺ ᏢᎪᎡᎢ,

We have already occupied so large a portion of this lecture with the last branch of discourse, that it is necessary to comprise our remarks on the concluding part in as small a compass as possible. We have seen some of the striking adaptations indicative of design in the structure of man, in the relation of the parts of his corporeal frame to each other and to the whole-in the relation of man's organization to the world and its furniture-and we now notice the relation of this world to the whole of which it forms a part; and though the glance which we take of the great system must be cursory and brief, it will, I trust, be sufficient to show that the traces of a being of infinite wisdom and intelligence are here also strikingly manifest.

The globe which we inhabit forms part of a magnificent system, which takes its name from the central body around which the whole revolve, thence called the Solar System. In this splendid and stupendous piece of celestial machinery, we see a vastness which overwhelms us, and which reduces all the magnitudes and distances to which we are accustomed on the surface of this earth to a mere point. The sun, in

the centre, being between one and two million times larger than this globe; and the outer circle of this immense orrery, a circumference of ten thousand millions of miles. Around this centre, and at different distances, revolve seven primary planets, besides four which slightly vary from them, several of which are attended by moons or secondary planets, the whole number of which is eighteen, all of which accompany the progress of their primaries. All these bodies are globular, all move round the sun from west to east, in nearly circular orbits, and in nearly the same plane,* have a rotary motion on their own axis, and a certain inclination of their poles to their ecliptics.† All these mighty orbs, at distances which the mind cannot take in, move with a regularity which no clock-work can equal, from year to`year, and from age to age.

The first adaptation which strikes us as indicating design, is the relative position of that body which is the source of of light and heat to all. If we wish to place a lamp or stove in such a situation that the benefits resulting from either should be equally diffused through a given space, we fix it in the centre. And if a Being of infinite wisdom had the regulation and disposition of all the parts of this celestial system, would he not select the same position for the sun? And would it not be something very singular, that chance should do precisely that which the wisest foresight would choose and determine? All the purposes of the system, for

* The satellites of Uranus, or the Georgium Sidus, are a remarkable exception, the planes of their orbits being nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic.-See Treatise on Astronomy, by Sir John F. W. Herschell, p. 299.

+ Besides the primary and secondary planets there are comets to the amount of several hundreds, which move round the sun; amidst all that is apparently irregular in their movements, "the motions of comets are regulated by the same general laws as those of the planets,-the difference of the cases consisting only in the extravagant elongation of their ellipses, and in the absence of any limit to the inclinations of their planes to that of the ecliptic, or any general coincidence in the direction of their motions from west to east, rather than from east to west, like what is observed among the planets."-Herschell's Astronomy, p. 306.

aught that we can perceive, would have been answered just as well if the central body had been opaque; or if the luminous body had been one of those smaller orbs which move round the centre. Had this been the case, the whole condition of our globe would have been completely different, and neither man nor beast, neither animal nor vegetable life could have existed. And is not the supposition as gratuitous as it is bold and daring, that the lighting up of the whole magnificent orrery by kindling this glorious orb just in its centre, had no reference at all to those myriads of beings who should receive perpetual benefit from it?

There are two other arrangements which are eminently beneficial, and which have no appearance whatever of chance or accident. By the rotation of the earth on its axis, every part of the globe shares in the benefit of the sun's rays; without this one half of it would be a dark and cheerless desert, where no life could exist, and the other would be parched by oppressive heat and be in a perpetual glare. The inclination of the earth's axis is another means of good. If the axis of the earth were perpendicular to the ecliptic, the polar regions would be in constant winter; but by the inclination of the earth's axis the frozen regions of the north have their summer, and the cheerless winter of the antarctic climes is enlivened by the return of the sun. To this beneficent adjustment we are indebted for all the delights and blessings of the change of seasons.

In the combination of those forces by which the earth performs its annual revolution, we see another indication of supreme wisdom and goodness. By the attraction of gravity the earth is ever drawn towards the centre; by the projectile force impressed on it, it tends to move forward in a straight line; and by their joint operation it moves around the sun. These two forces, however, might be combined in very different proportions, so as to vary almost without end the

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