branes, should be organized, endowed with powers of ab sorption and perspiration, furnished with hundreds of vessels for conveying the sap through all its parts, and perforated with thousands of pores to give passage to myriads of odoriferous particles, secreted from the internal juices. It was also requisite that the atmosphere should be formed, for the purpose of affording nourishment to the plant, and for conveying its odoriferous effluvia to the olfactory nerves. The rains, the dews, the principle of heat, the revolution of the seasons, the succession of day and night, the principle of evaporation, the agitation of the air by winds, and the solar light,—all combine their influence and their agencies in producing the grateful sensation we feel from the smell of a rose. So that the sense of smelling is not only connected with the agency of all the terrestrial elements around us, but bears a relation to the vast globe of the sun himself; for an energy exerted at the distance of ninety-five millions of miles, and a motion of 200,000 miles, every second, in the particles of light, are necessary to its existence; and consequently, it forms one of the subordinate ends for which that luminary was created :—and, being related to the sun, it may bear a certain relation to similar agencies which that central globe is producing among the inhabitants of surrounding worlds. Thus it appears, that the various senses of man, as well as the external objects which contribute to their gratification, are the results of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, and calculated to promote the happiness of sensitive and intelligent beings. But, before any one of these senses could perform its functions, it required to be united with a most wonderful system of organization. The heart required to be endowed with an immense degree of muscular power, and to be set in action in the centre of this complicated systemhundreds of arteries required to be bored, and ramified, and arranged, to convey the blood to its remotest extremities, and hundreds of veins to bring it back again to its reservoir-thousands of lacteal and lymphatic tubes to absorb nutriment from the food, and convey it to the cir culating fluid-thousands of glands to secrete humours that are noxious or redundant from the mass of blood, and emunctories to throw them off from the system-hun reas of muscles for moving the different members of the body, and for conveying the whole corporeal frame from place to place-hundreds of fine cords infinitely ramified over the whole body, to convey sensation to all its parts, and thousands of millions of perforations to be made in the skin, through which the insensible perspiration might continually flow. To support this fine and delicate system of vessels, hundreds of bones of diversified forms, and different sizes, and connected together by various modes of articulation, required to be constructed and arranged, and nicely adapted to their peculiar functions; and hundreds of tendons and ligaments, to connect these bones with the muscles, and with every other part of the animal frame. This machine required to be preserved in constant action, whether we be sleeping or waking, sitting or standing, in motion or at rest. The heart required to give ninety-six thousand strokes every twenty-four hours, to send off streams of the vital fluid through hundreds of tubes, and to impel the whole mass of blood through every part of the body every four minutes. The lungs required to be in constant play, expanding and contracting their thousand vehicles, at least twenty times every minute, to imbibe the oxygen of the atmosphere, and to transmit its enlivening influence to the circulating fluids-the stomach to be dissolving the food, and preparing it for the nourishment of the body-the liver and kidneys to be drawing off their secretions-the lacteals to be extracting nutritious particles, to be conveyed, by the absorbent vessels, into the mass of the blood-and the perspiration, which might otherwise clog the wheels of the whole machine, to be thrown off incessantly through millions of pores. All this curious and delicate machinery, constructed of the most flabby substances, required to be put in motion, and to be preserved in action every moment, before we could contemplate the beauties of a landscape, be delighted with the sounds of music, or inhale the fragrance of a rose. It is worthy of notice, that, in the construction and arrangement of all these numerous and complicated parts and functions, there is not a single instance, that any physiologist can produce, in which pain is the object of the contrivance. Of all the thousands of adaptations which Infinite Wisdom has contrived, there is not one but what has for its object, the communication of pleasure to the sentient being in which it is found.-If a number of small muscles are connected with the eye, it is for the purpose of rendering that organ susceptible of a quick and easy motion in every direction, to meet every exigence. If the arteries are furnished with numerous valves, opening only in one direction, it is intended to prevent the blood from returning by a wrong course, and endangering the whole structure of the animal machine. If a joint is formed to move only in one direction, as the joints of the fingers, it is intended to prevent those inconveniences which would inevitably have been felt, had it been capable of moving in every direction. If another kind of joint is constructed so as to move in every direction, it is intended to enable us to perform, with facility, those movements and operations which would otherwise have been either impossible, or have been attended with the greatest inconvenience and pain. There are certain parts connected with the human frame, whose precise use cannot be accurately determined, but this is owing to our limited knowledge of the various functions which are requisite to be performed in this complicated machine. In no instance whatever can it be shown, that the infliction of pain is the object of any one part or function of whose use we are uncertain ;-and it is conformable to the dictates of the soundest reason to conclude, that, since every part, whose use we can ascertain, is adapted to communicate pleasure, every other part, throughout every branch of the animal system, is calculated to produce a similar effect. It is true, indeed, that pain is frequently felt in the different members which compose our corporeal system; but this is not owing to its original construction, but to the derangement which its parts receive, either from internal disease or from external violence and such consequences are the effects, either of the folly of man, in exposing his body to danger or in using its members for improper purposes, or of the physical changes which have happened in the system of nature since man was created, or of those depraved and immoral passions which so frequently agitate and convulse his corporeal frame. Let us now endeavour, if we can, to sum up a few of the blessings which we enjoy from these wise arrangements of our Beneficent Creator. In our bodies there are reckoned 245 bones, each of them having forty distinct scopes or intentions, and 446 muscles for the purpose of motion, each having at least ten several intentions. All these are ready every moment to perform their functions; and every breath we draw, whether we be in motion or at rest, asleep or awake, a hundred muscles at least are in constant action. In the act of breathing, we respire at least twenty times every minute; the heart exerts its muscular force in propelling the blood into the arteries sixty times every minute; the stomach and abdominal muscles are every moment in action, and the curious little bones of the ear are ever ready to convey sensations of the softest whisper to the brain. So that, without an hyperbole, or the least extravagance of expression, it may truly and literally be said, that we enjoy a thousand blessings every minute, and, consequently, sixty thousand every hour, and one million four hundred and forty thousand every day. For, if any one of these numerous functions were to stop, or to be interrupted, pain, and even death itself might be induced. Let us ask the man who is gasping for breath, under an incurable asthma, or him who is smarting under the pain of a toothache, or him who has wounded a nerve, an artery, or a vein, or him who has dislocated his shoulder-blade, if he would not consider it as a peculiar blessing to have the functions of nature restored to their original action? And if one member out of joint, or one function out of order, produces so much pain and uneasiness, how grateful ought we to feel for the thousands of blessings we enjoy every moment, while the wheels of the animal machine are moving on with smoothness and harmony! If we consider the number of years during which these blessings have been continued,-if we consider the mercies received in childhood, which have been long overlooked or forgotten,-if we count the many nights which we have passed in sound repose, and the many days we have enjoyed without bodily pain,-if we reflect on the nu merous objects of sublimity and beauty with which our eyes have been delighted, the numerous sounds which have charmed our ears and cheered our hearts, and the numerous gratifications which our other senses have received; if we consider how often food has been provided and administered for the nourishment of our bodies, and from how many visible and invisible dangers we have been delivered-and, if we view all these countless blessings as proceeding every moment from him, "whose hands have made and fashioned us,' " and who "breathed into our nostrils the breath of life," can we forbear to recognise our Almighty Benefactor as worthy of our supreme affection and our most lively gratitude? "For me, when I forget the darling theme,- Under an impression of the diversified agencies of Divine Wisdom which are incessantly contributing to our enjoyment, and of the vast profusion of our Creator's beneficence which we behold around us, and experience every passing hour, can we forbear exclaiming with the enraptured Poet : When all thy mercies, O my God! If, then, the construction of our bodies, and the terrestrial scene in which we are placed, present so many striking displays of Wisdom and Benevolence, what an astonishing and transporting scene of Divine Benignity would burst upon the view, were we permitted to explore those more extensive provinces of the empire of Omnipotence, where physical and moral evil have never shed their balefuĺ |