"Let me also point out to you, William," continued Mr. Seagrave, "the
infinity of his creative power, displayed in endless variety. Amongst
the millions of men that have been born, and died, if ever yet were
there seen two faces or two bodies exactly alike; nay, if you could
examine the leaves upon the trees, although there may be millions upon
millions in a forest, you could not discover two leaves of precisely
the same form and make."
"I have often tried in vain," replied William; "yet some animals are so
much alike, that I cannot perceive any difference between them - sheep,
for instance."
"Very true; you cannot tell the difference, because you have not
examined them; but a shepherd, if he has seven hundred sheep under his
care, will know every one of them from the others; which proves that
there must be a great difference between them, although not perceptible
to the casual observer; and the same, no doubt, is the case with all
other classes of animals."
"Yes, William," observed Ready; "I have often wondered over the things
that I have seen, and I have even in my ignorance felt what your papa
has now told you; and it has brought into my mind the words of Job:
`When I consider, I am afraid of him'."
"Papa," said William, after a pause in the conversation, "you have
referred to the variety - the wonderful variety - shown in the works of
the Deity. Tell me some other prominent feature in creation."
"One of the most remarkable, William, is order."
"Point out to me, papa, where and in what that quality is most
observable."
"Everywhere and in everything, my dear boy; whether we cast our eyes up
to the heavens above us, or penetrate into the bowels of the earth, the
principle of order is everywhere - everything is governed by fixed
laws, which cannot be disobeyed: we have order in the seasons, in the
tides, in the movement of the heavenly bodies, in the instinct of
animals, in the duration of life assigned to each; from the elephant
who lives more than a century, to the ephemeral fly, whose whole
existence is limited to an hour.
"Inanimate nature is subject to the same unvarying laws. Metals, and
rocks, and earths, and all the mineral kingdom follow one law in their
crystallization, never varying from the form assigned to them; each
atom depositing itself in the allotted place, until that form is
complete: we have order in production, order in decay; but all is
simple to him by whom the planets were thrown out into space, and were
commanded to roll in their eternal orbits."
"Yes; the stars in the heavens are beautiful," said William, "but they
are not placed there in order."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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