If we
believe that there is almighty power, and supreme wisdom employed for
sustaining that beautiful system of plants and animals which is so
interesting to us, we must certainly conclude, that the earth, on which
this system of living things depends, has been constructed on principles
that are adequate to the end proposed, and procure it a perfection which
it is our business to explore. Therefore, a proper system of the earth
should lead us to see that wise contraction, by which this earth is made
to answer the purpose of its intention and to preserve itself from every
accident by which the design of this living world might be frustrated as
this world is an active scene, or a material machine moving in all its
parts, we must see how this machine is so contrived, as either to have
those parts to move without wearing and decay, or to have those parts,
which are wasting and decaying, again repaired.
A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a
philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those
hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency
of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means
wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as
well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this
manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of
this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move
perpetually in their orbits.
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