But with such wisdom has nature
ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one
continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in
the production of another; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for
which the world above the surface of the sea is leveled with its bottom,
are among the means employed in those operations, as well as the
sustenance of those living beings is the proper end in view.
Thus, in understanding the proper constitution of the present earth, we
are led to know the source from whence had come all the materials which
nature had employed in the construction of the world which appears; a
world contrived in consummate wisdom for the growth and habitation of a
great diversity of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly adapted
to the purposes of man, who inhabits all its climates, who measures its
extent, and determines its productions at his pleasure.
The whole of a great object or event fills us with wonder and
astonishment, when all the particulars, in the succession of which the
whole had been produced, may be considered without the least emotion.
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