This Sidereal Intelligence, standing in the same ratio to the Planetary Intelligences that the pervading spirit of our world has to our minds, will form a fourth term of the series; and will be represented in the numerical series which we have adopted by a thousand millions. The difference between this and the preceding term is thus a thousand times greater than that between the two last terms, and a million times greater than between the human soul and the sentient particles of the body.

It is needless to carry this numerical series any farther. The ratio of a thousand to one, which we have chosen as an illustration, is indeed incalculably too low, and yet it is plain how rapidly the series rises even with this ratio. How much more rapidly then, if a ratio could have been found proportionate to the vast superiority of the human soul over the body! The difference between the successive terms would then increase so much the faster, being multiplied at each step by the whole amount of the ratio, whatever that may be.

Ascending, then, from the pervading spirit of the solar system, let us next suppose a spirit pervading that group of nearer stars among which the sun shines as but one brilliant, - penetrating by his knowledge the Sidereal Intelligences, and having power to actuate them. This Arch-Sidereal Intelligence will form a fifth term of the series,

still ascending by the same ratio, namely, that of our mind to the sentient particles of the body. Let us then ascend to a great spirit pervading all the groups of stars which form the nebula in which the sun is situated, - penetrating the Arch-Sidereal Intelligences and having power to actuate them: this will furnish a sixth term for the series.

Then let us suppose one Spirit pervading all the nebulæ in the visible heavens, penetrating with his knowledge and power the presiding Intelligence of each nebula:--this will supply a seventh term for the series. But what if the whole visible heavens, with all that the telescope has discovered, be, as Mr. Herschel thinks, only one nebula to the whole vast universe of God? What if there be many other nebulæ of equal extent in the unfathomable realms of space, all pervaded by intelligences? To what an astonishing, what an inconceivable height will the next step of our series carry us!

But here let us rest and survey the scale by which we have ascended. We have supposed five orders of Intelligences superior to man ascending in geometrical progression. But do such orders really exist? I think it highly probable, the arrangement of the universe seems very favourable to the supposition. Now within these orders there is room enough for arithmetical series. Beneath the lowest of them there may be angels and archangels superior to man.

There may be

also another rank of angels and archangels subordinate directly to the next order of intelligences. But what if these five orders should be but a fiction? Well, strike down the ladder by which we have ascended to this stupendous eminence: still we have safely gained the elevation from which we may best contemplate the infinitude of God. Has the distance between us and the Creator seemed to lessen as we ascended? Has it not at every step seemed stretching more and more rapidly out towards infinitude, till the mind, overpowered, is constrained to rest. What then must be the immensity of that Being who cannot be represented by any one term of the series, but is himself equal to the sum of the whole, -nay more, the Author, from whom, and through whom, and to whom, are all things, the Eternal and Unchangeable GOD!

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.

THAT God first created the universe according to the eternal archetype of his own wisdom, and stamped with the impress of his own intellectual and moral character, and then ceased to take any care of it or any concern about it, thenceforth enjoying himself in all-inactive ease, or engaged with other contemplations to the abandonment of this, would imply mutability of his nature and counsels, - a thing which we have shown to be utterly at variance with the very idea of a First Cause. The same reasoning, therefore, which proves the existence of God, proves also the reality of his providence, his watchful and perpetual care over the creatures which he has made. And, by parity of reason, the minuteness and delicacy of his work, prove the minuteness and delicacy of his attention in providence. He who has so curiously formed the parts of a mite, or the still smaller parts of many a microscopic object,

shall he overlook a man?-He who has made the single hairs of our head, each a little tube of exquisite fineness, and supplied with requisite moisture, shall he forget or be inattentive to our smallest comforts? Wisdom directs that the lesser attention should not be bestowed upon the more valuable and important part of any design. The intellectual and moral part of the universe is the glory and the beauty of it, and to this the material part ought to be, and therefore is, subordinate. If therefore the laws of the one ever interfere with those of the other it is obvious which ought to bend, or if the interest of the moral and intellectual part require a slight suspension of the laws of matter, these laws must give way. It is called a miracle if they do, but it were an unaccountable anomaly if they did not. But in the healthy state of the intellectual world no such interruption can ever occur, for he who made the universe made every part to harmonize.

The Providence of God is conceived by most men to be of two kinds, · General and Particular. By General Providence they mean the ordinary laws by which God proceeds in the government of the world. By Particular Providences they understand certain interruptions of these general laws, which God sees fit to make in particular cases, for the accomplishment of particular ends. But, however prevalent this opinion may be, it does not seem entitled to our