1. The aspect of the world, even without any of the peculiar lights which science throws upon it, is fitted to give us an idea of the greatness of the power by which it is directed and governed, far exceeding any notions of power and greatness which are suggested by any other contemplation. The number of human beings who surround us--the various conditions requisite for their life, nutrition, well-being, all fulfilled;--the way in which these conditions are modified, as we pass in thought to other countries, by climate, temperament, habit;--the vast amount of the human population of the globe thus made up;--yet man himself but one among almost endless tribes of animals;--the forest, the field, the desert, the air, the ocean, all teeming with creatures whose bodily wants are as carefully provided for as his;--the sun, the clouds, the winds, all attending, as it were, on these organized beings;--a host of beneficent energies, unwearied by time and succession, pervading every corner of the earth;--this spectacle cannot but give the contemplator a lofty and magnificent conception of the Author of so vast a work, of the Ruler of so wide and rich an empire, of the Provider for so many and varied wants, the Director and Adjuster of such complex and jarring interests. But when we take a more exact view of this spectacle, and aid our vision by the discoveries which have been made of the structure and extent of the universe, the impression is incalculably increased. The number and variety of animals, the exquisite skill displayed in their structure, the comprehensive and profound relations by which they are connected, far exceed any thing which we could in any degree have imagined. But the view of the universe expands also on another side. The earth, the globular body thus covered with life, is not the only globe in the universe. There are, circling about our own sun, six others, so far as we can judge, perfectly analogous in their nature: besides our moon and other bodies analogous to it. No one can resist the temptation to conjecture, that these globes, some of them much larger than our own, are not dead and barren;--that they are, like ours, occupied with organization, life, intelligence. To conjecture is all that we can do, yet even by the perception of such a possibility, our view of the kingdom of nature is enlarged and elevated. The outermost of the planetary globes of which we have spoken is so far from the sun, that the central luminary must appear to the inhabitants of that planet, if any there are, no larger than Venus does to us; and the length of their year will be eighty-two of ours.