In making a survey of the universe, for the purpose of pointing out such correspondencies and adaptations as we have mentioned, we shall suppose the general leading facts of the course of nature to be known, and the explanations of their causes now generally established among astronomers and natural philosophers to be conceded. We shall assume therefore that the earth is a solid globe of ascertained magnitude, which travels round the sun, in an orbit nearly circular, in a period of about three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, and in the mean time revolves, in an inclined position, upon its own axis in about twenty-four hours, thus producing the succession of appearances and effects which constitute seasons and climates, day and night;--that this globe has its surface furrowed and ridged with various inequalities, the waters of the ocean occupying the depressed parts:--that it is surrounded by an atmosphere, or spherical covering of air; and that various other physical agents, moisture, electricity, magnetism, light, operate at the surface of the earth, according to their peculiar laws. This surface is, as we know, clothed with a covering of plants, and inhabited by the various tribes of animals, with all their variety of sensations, wants, and enjoyments. The relations and connexions of the larger portions of the world, the sun, the planets, and the stars, the _cosmical_ arrangements of the system, as they are sometimes called, determine the course of events among these bodies; and the more remarkable features of these arrangements are therefore some of the subjects for our consideration. These cosmical arrangements, in their consequences, affect also the physical agencies which are at work at the surface of the earth, and hence come in contact with _terrestrial_ occurrences. They thus influence the functions of plants and animals. The circumstances in the cosmical system of the universe, and in the organic system of the earth, which have thus a bearing on each other, form another of the subjects of which we shall treat. The former class of considerations attends principally to the stability and other apparent perfections of the solar system; the latter to the well-being of the system of organic life by which the earth is occupied. The two portions of the subject may be treated as Cosmical Arrangements and Terrestrial Adaptations.