The Indications of the Creator; Or, The Natural Evidences of Final CauseC. Scribner, 1851 - 282 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
action adapted animal kingdom antiaris toxicaria appears arrangement Asterolopis astronomical atmosphere axis beautiful blood bodies carbonic acid carbonic acid gas carboniferous carnivora cause cells changes character classes climate connected continental masses continents creation CREATOR depends deposited dicotyledonous distinct distinguished divisions earth elevation elliptical embryo evidence existence fact fascicles fishes flowers fluid forces formation fossil gemmule germination globe globules growth harmony heat heavens Herschel Hugh Miller important increase INFINITE land latitude laws light limestone ment mighty monocotyledonous motion mountains mysterious nature nebular hypothesis nebulous nebulous matter necessary observed Old Red Sandstone orbit organs particles peculiar phenomena philosopher physical placoids planetary plants radicle reptiles respiration respiratory result Silurian Sir Charles Lyell solar rays species stars stomata strata supply surface telescope temperature terrestrial theory tion transmutation transmutation of species utricles vapor various vegetable and animal vegetable kingdom winds zodiacal light
Popular passages
Page 180 - 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 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 261 - 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 197 - 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 246 - 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.