The Indications of the Creator; Or, The Natural Evidences of Final CauseC. Scribner, 1851 - 282 pages |
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action adapted agencies agents animal kingdom antiaris toxicaria appears arrangement Asterolopis astronomical atmosphere axis beautiful bodies carbonic acid carboniferous cause changes character climate connected continental masses continents creation CREATOR depends deposited dicotyledonous discoveries distance distinct distinguished divisions earth eccentricities elevation elliptical evidence existence fact fishes fluid forces formation fossil globe globules growth harmony heat heavens Herschel Hugh Miller hypothesis important increase INFINITE influence land latitude laws less light limestone Llandeilo lower ment mighty mind monocotyledonous motion mountain mysterious nature nebular hypothesis nebulous nebulous matter necessary observed oceanic element Old Red Sandstone orbit organs particles phenomena philosopher physical placoids planetary plants present prove radiation regions reptiles respiration respiratory result Roderick Murchison Silurian Sir Charles Lyell solar rays species stars strata telescope temperature terrestrial theory tion transmutation of species Uranus vapor various vegetable and animal vegetable kingdom winds zodiacal light
Popular passages
Page 66 - 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...
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 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 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 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...
Page 65 - Roll on, ye stars ! exult in youthful prime, Mark with bright curves the printless steps of time ; Near and more near your beamy cars approach, And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach ; Flowers of the sky ! ye, too, to age must yield. Frail as your silken sisters of the field...
Page 37 - ... will be much too small to come under the same denomination; we therefore either have a central body which is not a star, or have a star which is involved in a shining fluid, of a nature totally unknown to us.
Page 82 - ... twenty-eight minutes ; and during the time of the motion, the diameter is kept parallel to the same direction. By this simple but stupendous contrivance, the changes of the seasons and temperature are effected. Had the axis of the earth been perpendicular to the plane of its orbit, like...