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Posted by Good Man on 06/15/15 12:00
knowledge, I wish that,
before entering on deeper researches into nature, he would consider her both
seriously and at leisure, that he would reflect upon himself also, and
knowing what proportion there is... Let man then contemplate the whole of
nature in her full and grand majesty, and turn his vision from the low
objects which surround him. Let him gaze on that brilliant light, set like
an eternal lamp to illumine the universe; let the earth appear to him a
point in comparison with the vast circle described by the sun; and let him
wonder at the fact that this vast circle is itself but a very fine point in
comparison with that described by the stars in their revolution round the
firmament. But if our view be arrested there, let our imagination pass
beyond; it will sooner exhaust the power of conception than nature that of
supplying material for conception. The whole visible world is only an
imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it. We
may enlarge our conceptions beyond an imaginable space; we only produce
atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere,
the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, it
is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination
loses itself in that thought.
Returning to himself, let man consider what he is in comparison with all
existence; let him regard himself as lost in this remote corner of nature;
and from the little cell in which he finds himself lodged, I mean the
universe, let him estimate at their true value the earth, kingdoms, cities,
and himself. What is a man in the Infinite?
But to show him another prodigy equally astonishing, let him examine the
most delicate things he knows. Let a mite be given him, with its minute body
and parts incomparably more minute,
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