Hundreds  of  comets,  in  their  various  orbits,  with  all  the  heavenly  bodies,
move  in  rotation,  and  have  no  infringement  in  their  conjunction  ;  but  each,
in  order,  keeps  its  course,  and  harmonizes  with  the  whole  !

Could  a  drop  of  water,  or  a  grain  of  sand,  go  out  of  existence,  but  by
the  will  of  its  Author,  by  the  same  rule,  the  whole  fabric  of  nature  could
annihilate  itself,  and  sink  into  a  state  of  nonentity  !

If  every  thing  which  had  a  beginning  must  have  an  end,  then  that  which
had  no  beginning  can  have  no  end  ;  consequently,  if  nature  exists  by  ema-
nation, from  the  will  of  its  Author,  by  the  same  rule,  it  must  continue  to
exist,  or  go  out  of  being,  but  when  agreeable  to  his  pleasure.
Those  people  who  plead  for  the  perfection  of  nature,  independent  of  its
Author,  saying,  "  nature  does  this  or  that,"  as  luck,  fortune,  or  chance
would  have  it,  &c,  necessarily  ascribe  omnific  power  and  omniferous
principles  to  matter.  And  this  would  argue  the  omnipotence  and  omni-
presence of  nature,  abstract  from  its  Author  also,  inasmuch  as  there  is  a
bond  of  union  throughout  the  whole ;  which  bond  of  union  prevails  as  far
as  nature  is  explored  and  understood,  as  the  laws  of  electricity  and  mag-
netism exemplify  on  this  globe,  and  as  the  laws  of  gravitation  manifest
throughout  universal  nature !

But  to  ascribe  those  powers  to  nature,  is  not  to  make  a  proper  distinction
between  mind  and  matter ;  moreover  it  imputes  effects  to  causes  which
could  never  produce  them.
Matter,  when  moved  by  another  cause,  cannot  stop  of  itself;  and  when
stopped  it  cannot  move  of  itself.  Hence  matter  when  put  in  motion  is  al-
ways indebted  to  some  other  cause.
