Note 35 — INTRODUCTION.

Man will, unquestionably, by taking an extensive range in the contemplation of nature, proportionably enlarge his intuitive conceptions of the attributes of her Almighty First Cause; of whose transcendently exalted existence, the study of his own being, one of nature’s greatest works, will have taught him the reality: and a due knowledge of himself, alone, will also instruct him in the dependent nature of his condition, and the duties resulting from that state of dependence, in his humble relation to the Supreme being.

Mr. Smart, in the poem before quoted, has prettily expressed this idea, in the following lines:—

“Vain were th’ attempt, and impious, to trace

Thro’ all his works th’ Artificer Divine—

And tho’ no shining sun, nor twinkling star,

Bedeck’d the crimson curtains of the sky;

Tho’ neither vegetable, beast, nor bird,

Were extant on the surface of this ball,

Nor lurking gem beneath; tho’ the great sea

Slept in profound stagnation, and the air

Had left no thunder to pronounce its Maker;

Yet Man at home, within himself, might find

The Deity immense; and, in that frame

So fearfully, so wonderfully made,

See and adore his Providence and Pow’r.”