roots, it would have been impossible for animals to subsist. Almighty and merciful God, here also we have to acknowledge the wonders of Thy Providence! Thy goodness is every-where manifested, and there is no mind so weak that does not comprehend that Thou art all-great, all-powerful, and good! to be convinced of this we have only to contemplate the widely extended vegetable kingdom. Wherever we go at this season of the year, we walk on plants and flowers; and as far as we can extend our view we behold fields and meadows, covered with the rich blessings of heaven! MAY XXXI. Plurality of Worlds. PRIDE, ignorance, or self-love, induce some people to believe that our world is the only part of the im. mense universe which is inhabited; that the sun is only formed to give us his light and heat; and that the moon and the stars answer no other purposes than to enlighten the gloom of our nights, and serve as guides to the mariner and the traveller. The contemplation of the fixed stars alone is sufficient to refute this absurd opinion. Their brilliancy demonstrates that they shine by their own light; and from their being visible to us, notwithstanding their immense distance, we are justified in supposing them to be much larger than our sun. And is it consonant with Divine Wisdom, which has not created a single particle of matter in vain, that these immense bodies, each in itself a sun, so numerous and so distant from our earth, should shine with ineffectual light, and not be destined to some great and noble end? If they were merely intended to serve as nocturnal lights to our world they could be of no use during Plurality of Worlds. 293 the greatest part of the year. The clouded atmosphere which often envelops us, and the short nights of summer, which are sufficiently light without the aid of stars, would render them useless; and those stars of which there are many which we cannot see with the naked eye, because of their vast distance, would exist in vain; and their supposed destination would be much better accomplished by one single star placed nearer to us, than by millions so distantly situated that their rays could not reach us. The same kind of reasoning will hold for whatever use we imagine the stars to be created; whether for the purposes of navigation, or any other use, we shall fall equally short of the truth, and must ultimately be brought to confess, that if no creatures beyond our globe profited by their light and heat, or if they themselves were not inhabited by living beings, their creation would be useless, and their existence superfluous: but the Almighty has created nothing that is not pregnant with utility; and if we can discover nothing, however insignificant, on this earth that does not answer some end, how much more must these immense bodies tend to manifest the power and glory of God! This conclusion will appear still more just if we reflect attentively upon the solar system. We have seen in a former discourse that the moon in many respects resembles our earth; and from all that we have been able to discover of her, we have reason to believe she contains inhabitants. The analogy between the moon and the planets leads us to suppose they also are inhabited; and, as each fixed star has, according to all appearance, like our sun, its particular planets, so we may reasonably suppose they in some degree resemble the planets in our system; and thus we see around us an innumerable multitude of worlds, each having its peculiar arrangement, laws, productions, and inhabitants. How infinite are the works of God! How majestic the starry heavens! and how great must be their Creator, whose glory millions of worlds declare, and whose all-intelligent power the myriads which inhabit them, adoring, acknowledge! Let us unite in the heavenly choir, that whilst incense from millions of worlds is ascending unto the God of all power, we alone may not be wanting in the universal song of joy, of praise, and of thanksgiving, to the great God of all, the Father of light and glory. How grandly does the prospect of futurity open upon our souls, when we shall become acquainted with the worlds whose existence we can now barely ascertain, and the least of whose wonders we are unable to comprehend! when we shall be initiated into all the mysteries of heaven, and admitted within the circle of that glory whose radiance emanates from the Creator! Hymn of Thanksgiving. CELEBRATE the praises of the Lord, and adore him. Exalt, praise, and sing the marvellous and wonderful works of your Creator, all ye whom he has made capable of enjoying them! For great is his power who has created the heaven and all its hosts, whose beauty and splendour announce the glory of the Parent of light and life; the universe declares it, and the eye is never weary with contemplating that in which it continually discovers new beauties. But the eye alone does not enjoy these pleasures; the beauties of nature speak to the soul, and fill it with rapture. O man, is there a blade of grass, a leaf, or a grain of dust, which does not proclaim to thee, the council of the strong God? How rich is He in power and be neficence! but, alas! how often does He find thee insensible; thy heart is hardened, and thy eye turns 295 Difference between Nature and Art. away from his works! Yet for thee His creative hand has diffused life and beauty through all things; for thee He has created, preserved, and adorned so many different beings which thou beholdest in the garden of nature. Thy God has need of nothing: it is for thy happiness that he has diversified the creation with so many charms, and that he has endued thee with an intelligent, immortal soul. Why then wilt thou seek happiness in that which is false and deceitful? Turn thine eye to thy God; from him thou wilt derive true felicity enjoy the blessings which he gives thee, and repentance will never follow the enjoyment. JUNE I. Difference between the Works of Nature and of Art. WHEN We compare the works of nature with those of art, we find that the former infinitely surpass the latter. And when we consider that the works of art are merely imitations from nature, there can be no doubt entertained on the subject. The nearer an artist approaches to nature, the more perfect is his work; he can invent nothing that is new, and his most sanguine hopes are to imitate nature, which is rich and various, whilst the variety of art is soon at an end, and her resources quickly exhausted. The kingdom of nature is almost unlimited: we may everywhere find treasures inexhaustible, and stores without end; her minutest objects are worthy of observation, and whether we examine a stone, a plant, or an ani mal, we shall find that they contain beauties which captivate, and perfections which astonish. The works of art, on the contrary, are soon exhausted; if we scrutinise them with the eye of critical nicety, we dis cover faults which we did not expect, and imperfections which we did not imagine; our admiration ceases, and we turn from them without delight. The works of art, and the proudest monuments of human skill, are mouldering in the dust, whilst those of nature continue in the vigour of youth and the freshness of beauty. The advantage of the latter in structure, over the former, is not less evident; whoever compares the mechanism of the most ingenious machine with that of animals, will be amazed with the one, whilst he considers the other as a mere bauble, or toy. To take the human body as an example: how wonderfully is it organised! The perfect and regular structure of the muscles, each one admirably adapted to its particular use; the circulation of the blood; the complicated variety of motions; the symmetry of the limbs, and the diversity of the functions; all display the most abundant proofs of the works of an Artificer, in comparison of which those of man are of less account than the dust in the balance. It would be useless to weary the reader with more observations to prove a self-evident fact: for, though such is the depravity of human nature, that our self. love induces us to prefer our own productions to those of another; and the taste of some men is so vitiated that they are disposed to disregard, and consider with indifference, whatever is not produced by human in, dustry and human ingenuity; few would be found so hardy as to expose their folly, and evince their total destitution of feeling, by asserting the puny efforts of art to be superior to the rolling of the billows, the cloud-capt mountains, and the smiling verdure of the valleys, together with all those stupendous and beautiful works that the ever-varying face of nature con. tinually presents, the study of which yields delight and joy ineffable. Whilst it expands the mind, it renders the heart susceptible of all those feelings which |