A Catechism of Natural Theology

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W. Hyde, 1831 - 215 pages
 

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Page 209 - It is a happy world after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. "The insect youth are on the wing.
Page 210 - Here pain and misery are the very objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is to be found in the works of nature.
Page 171 - The human animal is the only one which is naked, and the only one which can clothe itself. This is one of the properties which renders him an animal of all climates, and of all seasons. He can adapt the warmth or lightness of his covering to the temperature of his habitation. Had he been born with a fleece upon his back, although he might have been comforted by its warmth in high latitudes, it would have oppressed him by its weight and heat, as the species spread towards the equator.
Page 65 - OUR sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments.
Page 6 - The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
Page 182 - Maclaurin, by a fluxionary calculation, which is to be found in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. He has determined precisely the angle required ; and he found, by the most exact mensuration the subject could admit, that it is the very angle in which the three planes in the bottom of the cell of a honey-comb do actually meet...
Page 210 - One great cause of our insensibility to the goodness of the Creator, is the very extensiveness of his bounty. We prize but little what we share only in common with the rest, or with the generality of our species. When we hear of blessings, we think forthwith of successes, of prosperous fortunes, of...
Page 210 - We never discover a train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. No anatomist ever discovered a system of organization calculated to produce pain and disease; or, in explaining the parts of the human body, ever said, this is to irritate; this to inflame...
Page 187 - In the midst of so arid a country, the water-melon, the most juicy of fruits, is found in profusion. It is really a subject of wonder to see melons three or four feet in circumference, growing from a stalk as slender as that of the common melon, in the dry sand of the desart. They are sown, and perhaps require some cultivation, but they are scattered about to all appearance as if they grew wild.
Page 120 - ... can be seen in perfection only when the animal machinery has been kept in full activity. In inflammation, and pain, and necessary restraint, they become weak ; and even confinement, and want of exercise, without disease, will produce imperfections. Exercise unfolds the muscular system, producing a full bold outline of the limbs, at the same time that the joints are knit, small, and clean. In the loins, thighs, and legs of a dancer we see the muscular system...

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