whereas in the latter case, we see continual alterations of plan, and deviations from established rules. And without this permanent order of things, experience could not have directed man in respect to his future operations. These fixed laws of nature, so necessary for us, is an irresistible argument that the world is the work of a wise and benevolent BEING. The laws of nature are the laws of GOD; and how far soever we may be able to trace up causes, they must terminate in his will. We see nothing in the heavens which argues imperfection; the whole creation is stamped with the marks of DIVINITY.”—[See _A Complete System of Astronomy_; by the Rev. S. Vince, A. M. F. R. S. &c. printed at Cambridge, in 1799—vol. ii. p. 290, 291.] None of the works of creation present to the contemplation of man objects more worthy of the dignity of his nature, than those which engage the attention of the astronomer. They have, interested men of the sublimest genius, in all ages of the world: and the science of astronomy is spoken of with admiration, by the most celebrated sages of antiquity. Although no astronomer of our day, how enthusiastic soever he may be in favour of his science, will be disposed to say with Anaxagoras, that the purpose for which he himself or any other man was born, was, that he might contemplate the stars; yet it does seem, as if the objects of this science more naturally attracted the attention and employed the research of elevated minds, than those things, within the narrow limits of this world, an acquaintance with which constitutes the ordinary mass of human knowledge. The disposition of man to direct his eyes frequently upwards, and the faculty to do so, arising from his erect figure and the position and structure of the organs of his vision, furnish no feeble argument in proving, that this temporary lord of his fellow-beings on this globe has nobler destinies, infinitely beyond them; being enabled and permitted by the Author of his being, even while in this circumscribed state of his existence, to survey those myriads of worlds which occupy the immensity of space; to contemplate their nature, and the laws that govern them; thence, to discern, with the eye of reason, the Great First Cause of their being;[33] and thus having acquired, a juster knowledge of his own nature, to grasp at an endless futurity for its existence. ----- Footnote 33: In Mr. Smart’s _Poetical Essay on the Immensity of the Supreme Being_, after a glowing description of some of the admirable works of nature, is this apt, though laconic address to the Atheist:— “Thou ideot! that asserts, there is no God, _View_, and be dumb for ever.” ----- That the erect countenance and upward aspect of the human species were his peculiar endowments by the Deity, for these purposes among others, appears to have been the impression on the mind of Ovid, when he said:—