The Indications of the Creator; Or, The Natural Evidences of Final CauseC. Scribner, 1851 - 282 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
adapted antiaris toxicaria appears arrangement Asterolopis astronomers atmosphere axis beautiful bodies carbonic acid carbonic acid gas carboniferous cause changes character climate coal continents creation CREATOR depends deposited dicotyledonous discoveries distance distinct distinguished divisions earth eccentricities elements elevation elliptical evidences existence fact families fishes forces formation fossil friends of development ganoids globe growth harmony heat heavens Herschel Hugh Miller hypothesis important increase INFINITE land laws less light limestone Llandeilo Lord Rosse's lower ment mighty mind monocotyledonous motion mountain mysterious nature nebula nebular hypothesis nebulous matter necessary observed ocean Old Red Sandstone orbit organs particles phenomena philosopher physical placoids planetary planets present prove reptiles respiration result rocks Roderick Murchison Silurian Sir Charles Lyell solar rays species spines stars strata surface telescope temperature terrestrial theory tion transmutation of species Uranus vapor various vegetable and animal vegetable kingdom vertebrata winds zodiacal light
Popular passages
Page 263 - INTO the Silent Land ! Ah ! who shall lead us thither? Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather, And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand. Who leads us with a gentle hand Thither, O thither, Into the Silent Land...
Page 199 - Happy is he who lives to understand, Not human nature only, but explores All natures, — to the end that he may find The law that governs each ; and where begins The union, the partition where, that makes * Daniel. Kind and degree, among all visible Beings ; The constitutions, powers, and faculties...
Page 54 - Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Page 248 - Were it not for the reflective and scattering power of the atmosphere, no objects would be visible to us out of direct sunshine; every shadow of a passing cloud would be pitchy darkness ; the stars would be visible all day, and every apartment, into which the sun had not direct admission, would be involved in nocturnal obscurity.
Page 66 - ... yield, Frail as your silken sisters of the field. Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush, Suns sink on suns, and systems, systems crush, Headlong extinct to one dark centre fall, And death, and night, and chaos mingle all: Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm, Immortal Nature lifts her changeful form, Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame, And soars and shines, another and the same ! THE PAPYRUS.
Page 80 - ... how many ideas there have been on earth in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years before they appeared? Yet when their destined hour had come, they came forth and spread over the whole earth. So it will be with us, and our people will shine forth in the world, and all men will say: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner-stone of the building.
Page 88 - Milton, rising on an angel's wing to heaven, and like the bird of morn, soaring out of sight, amid the music of his grateful piety. I err with Locke, whose pure philosophy only taught him to adore its source, whose warm love of genuine liberty was never chilled into rebellion with its author. I err with Newton, whose star-like spirit shot athwart the darkness of the sphere, too soon to reascend to the home of his nativity.
Page 182 - O READER ! hast thou ever stood to see The holly tree? The eye that contemplates it well, perceives Its glossy leaves Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle, through their prickly round, Can reach to wound ; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.
Page 169 - that the solar beam during spring contains a large amount of the actinic principle, so necessary at that season for the germination of seeds and the development of buds. In summer there is a large proportion of the lightgiving principle, necessary to the formation of the woody parts of the plant. As autumn approaches, the colorific or heat-giving principles of the solar rays increase.
Page 47 - ... chaos be dissipated, it will by no means have been even then demonstrated that among those stars, so confusedly scattered, no aggregating powers are in action, tending to draw them into groups and insulate them from...