l6 INTRODUCTION.

the latter t0 the well being of the system of or- ganic life by which the earth is occupied. The two portions of the subject may be treated as C os- mical Arrangements and Terrestrial Adaptations.

\Ve shall begin with the latter class of adapta- tions, because in treating of these the facts are more familiar and tangible, and the reasonings less abstract a11d technical, than in the other division of the subject. Moreover, in this case men have no difficulty in recognizing as desirable the end which is answered by such adaptations, and they therefore the more readily consider it as an end. The nourishment, the enjoyment, the diffusion of living things, are willingly acknowledged to be a suitable object for contrivance ; the simplicity, the permanence, of an inert mechanical combination might not so readily be allowed to be a manifestly worthy aim of a (‘reating Wisdom. The former branch of our argument. may therefore be best suited to introduce to us the Deity the institutor of Laws of Nature, though thc latter may after- wards give us a wider view and a clearer insight into one province of his legislzitioli.