Thus,
it is by the operation of those powers that the varieties of season
in spring and autumn are obtained, that we are blessed with the
vicissitudes of summer's heat and winter's cold, and that we possess the
benefit of artificial light and culinary fire.
We are thus bountifully provided with the necessaries of life; we are
supplied with things conducive to the growth and preservation of our
animal nature, and with fit subjects to employ and to nourish our
intellectual powers.
There are other actuating powers employed in the operations of this
globe, which we are little more than able to enumerate; such are those
of electricity, magnetism, and subterraneous heat or mineral fire.
Powers of such magnitude or force, are not to be supposed useless in a
machine contrived surely not without wisdom; but they are mentioned here
chiefly on account of their general effect; and it is sufficient to have
named powers, of which the actual existence is well known, but of which
the proper use in the constitution of the world is still obscure.
The laws of electricity and magnetism have been well examined by
philosophers; but the purposes of those powers in the economy of the
globe have not been discovered.
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