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32X

BOOK OF NATURE

AKD THX

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

THOMAS FYLES.

Any profit av'aing fro»" the sale of this work will be devoted to the completion of

tho Church in Brome Woods.

PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET.

1866.

'—This our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the
nmning brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

THE BOOK OF NATURE

AND TBS

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

the

Reader, my subject is the Attributes of God written in
the Book of Nature, It is one to which the wisest of men
would fail to do justice — it is inexhaustible, for " there lives
and works a soul in all things , and that soul is Grod.^* I
can give you but a poor and imperfect translation of some of
the passages that are written in the ample page around us.
Before I do so, let me disclaim anything approaching to an
intention to support a system of Natural Religion. We know
that with the aid of Revelation we view but, as it were, the
" hinder parts'* of the High and Holy One that inhabiteth
eternity. We see but through a glass darkly. Much more
imperfect, then, must be our view of Him without such aid.
The wisdom of the wise in the most enlightened days of Egypt,

THE BOOK OP NATURE

Greece, and Rome, was very foolishness. By the philosophers
—falsely so called— of heathen times, the most atrocious
notions of the Deity were promulgated ; men could not by
searching find out God. Yet in the days of this ignorance
of God, He left not himself without witness, " in that he did
good, and gave men rain from heaven^ and fruitful seasons,
filling their hearts with food and gladness.'' And it is to
some of the appearances of this divine witness that I shall
now proceed to direct your attention.

I shall divide the matter I have to bring before you into
three parts, containing in order illustrations —

Of the Power of God.

Of the Wisdom of God.

Of the Goodness of God.
TJie first part shall contain illustrations of the Power of

God.

It is, perhaps, by the phenomena of the heavens that men
are most impressed with a sense of God's power. When " the
lightning flings its fiery hair across the forehead of the dark,''
and '' following thunder rolls its awful burden on the
wind," men cannot but feel that " the voice of the Lord is
mighty in operation," that " the voice of the Lord is a glorious
voice. And when the sweet colours of the rainbow are woven
m the dark curtam of the departing cloud, their hearts
must warm with gratitude to Him by whom the fabric was
designed and wrought.

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OP GOD.

By people in a barbarous or semi-barbarous state the more
unusual appearances of the heavenly bodies have been looked
upon as direct interpositions of the Almighty's hand : as pre-
cursors of famine, disease, and war, and have been dreaded
accordingly. Some amusing anecdotes are told of the terror
they have excited.

It is said that Columbus, when in the island of Jamaica,
was reduced by dread of famine to resort to an imposition
upon the weakness of the natives.

" Columbus and his crew having been wrecked, had consumed their
small stock of provisions, and having to depend upon the natives, with
Mrhom many untoward circumstances had prevented them from being on
good terms, it struck Columbus, who had a great knowledge of astro-
nomy, that an approaching eclipse of the moon might serve his purpose
of awing the natives. He accordingly summoned their chiefs to a council
on the evening of the eclipse, and told them that the deity of the skies,
whom they served, was angry with the Indians for withholding provi-
sions from the Spaniards, that the Indians would be punished in a
signal manner ; in token whereof the full moon, then riding in majesty
across the celestial dome, would be deprived of her light, and held
in black durance. S» >; : treated this announcement with contempt,
while others were alarmed, but all were naturally anxious. When they
at length saw the black shadow of the earth seizing the moon within
itself, they were all horror-struck, and, hastening to the crew with
provisions of all sorts, they begged the intercession of Columbus with
the celestial deity that the moon might be restored, promising to serve
Columbus faithfully ever after. Columbus, after retiring for some time
to consult the deity, as he said, promised them that the curse would be
taken ofif from them ; and that, as a sign, the moon would emerge from her

THE BOOK OP NATURE

confinement, which, when the Indians saw again traversing the heavens,
they adored the astronomer, believing him to have supernatural gifts,
and to hold an intercouse with heaven, whereby he was informed of
what would take place in the skies. The Spaniards suffered no more
upon this occasion through famine." — Sat. Mag., 1838.

" An eclipse happened during Lord Macartney's embassy to China,
which kept the emperor and his mandarins the whole day devoutly
praying the gods that the moon might not be eaten up by the great
dragon which was hovering about her ; the next day a pantomime was
performed, exhibiting the battle of the dragon and the moon, and in
which two or three hundred priests, bearing lanterns at the end of long
sticks, dancing and capering about, sometimes over the plain, and then
over chairs and tables, bore no mean part." — British Cyclopedia, Art.
Astronomy.

A few years ago, when a grnat comet was visible, the fol-
lowing paragraph went the round of the newspapers :

"The Correspondancia Autographa publishes a letter from Cochin
China, which asserts that the emperor of that country was so alarmed
at the comet that he had fastened himself in a tower, with poison and a
cord, in order to put an end to his existence in the event of its causing
any disaster."

But the signs of the heavens have not always been taken
by ignorant people as prognostics of calamity. Men have
been, and are still, found vain and weak enough to regard
them as happy omens connected with the affairs of their
own lives. Thus the birth of Romulus was said to have
been predicted by a comet. And you will remember that in n

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OP GOD. 7

the first part of Shakespere's King Henry the Fourth the
braggart Glendower says :

" At my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes
Of burning cressets, and at my birth
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shook like a coward."

The reply that is put m the mouth of Henry Percy, is

well calculated to shew the absurdity of such vain-glorious

boasting. He says .

" Why 80 it would hare done,
At the same season, if your mother's cat had
But kitten'd, though yourself had ne'er
Been born.

On the day of the battle of Mortimer's Cross (which was
fought in 1461 between the rival armies of York and Lan-
caster) there happened one of those remarkable occurrences
called parhelia or mock suns. They are owing to a peculiar
state of the atmosphere, which deceives the eye much in the
same way that a bad piece of glass does by multiplying the
appearances of the objects that are seen through it. The
poet Drayton, narrating the events of the battle, says :

"Three suns were seen that instante to appear,

Which soon again shut up themselves in one,

Ready to buckle as the armies were ;

Which this brave duke took to himself alone.

His drooping hopes, which somewhat seem'd to cheere,

By his mishaps neare lately overthrowne ;

So that thereby encouraging his men

Once more he sets the White Rose ' up agen.' "

THE BOOK OP NATURE

I think sufficient has been given to shew that the power of
God has been recognized in the signs of heaven by the unen-
lightened of mankind, though it has been with a superstitious
and unhealthy vision. There are persons who would keep
men ignorant, believing that the contemphtion of second
causes takes from their dependence upon God, who is the
first. Bacon, in the First Book of his Advancement of
Learning, has met the objections of such people :

" Will ye," he says, " lie for God as one man will do for another to
gratify him ? For certainly God works nothing in nature but by second
causes, and to assert the contrary is mere imposture, as it were, in favour
of God, and offering up to the author of truth the unclean sacrifice of a
lie. Undoubtedly a superficial tincture of philosophy may incline the
mind to atheism ; yet, a further knowledge brings it back to religion.—
For on the threshold of philosophy, where second causes appear to
absorb the attention, some oblivion of the highest cause may ensue ; but
when the mind goes deeper, and sees the dependence of causes and the
works of Providence, it will easily perceive, according to the mythology
of the poets, that the upper link of Nature's chain is fastened to Jupiter's
throne."

Let us examine whether we are likely to lose sight of God's
power by advancing in the paths of science.

To ignorant persons the earth appears to be the principal
object in creation. The sun, moon, and stars to them are
simply lights, in daily revolution round the earth. But As-
tronomy declares that the earth is but one of a number of
worlds, of which Jupiter and Saturn are the principal in

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

point of size. That it would take 1,400 such worlds as ours
to equal Jupiter, and 1,000 to equal Saturn. That Jupiter
is attended hj four bright moons, Saturn by seven, and
Uranus (a planet 80 times larger than the earth) by six.
That the sun is a glorious body, 1,000,000 times larger than
the earth : that it is in fact so large that if its centre were
placed where the centre of the earth now is, its body would
fill the spac ' between us and the moon's orbit, and extend
200,000 miles beyond. That round this sun the earth and
planets revolve, in different periods, and with diflferent degrees
of velocity : the earth being hurled through space at the rate
of 20 miles a moment.

These declarations are established — they are truths. Are
they not calculated to enlarge our opinion of God's power ?
But let us come to probabilities founded upon them, and sim-
ilar truths, and we shall be lost in amazement at the extent
of that power.

There is every reason to believe that the fixed stars are
suns resembling our sun, and that each of them has worlds
revolving round it, similar to our world, and teeming, as our
world does, with life— for God has made nothing in vain.
And probability does not end here. And, that you may quite
understand what I am about to statt. suppose yourselves upon
an immense plain, at night, standing in the midst of a vast
number of lights, some scores in breadth, but many thousands
in length ; and that at different positions upon this plain there

THE ROOK OF NATUllE

arc similar groups of lights. You will readily conceive that
those lights on either side of you will stand out, clear and
distinct ; that those immediately before you will be distin-
"uishable ; but that the individuality of those more remote
will be lost in their united blaze.

Now our sun is supposed to be one of a vast number of
suns arranged in a somewhat similar manner to the lights we
have been talking about. On either side of us the stars arc
distinct^ seen. Above us is a broad band of light, commonly
called tne Milky Way, which seen through a powerful tele-
scope is found to be composed of myriads of stars. At dif-
ferent points of the sky there are masses of light of a similar
nature to the Milky Way. They have received the name of
nebulce from astronomers. And it was the opinion of the
great Herschel that the whole of them was in motion round
some central point.

Let me now call your attention to the structure of the
earth on which we live. I will not trouble you with theories
respecting the mode of its formation ; but will simply point
out some of the indications of the stupendous nature of the
revolutions it has undergone, and of the wonderful power the
Almighty has displayed in directing its vicissitudes to tho
ffood of his creatures.

By Him the valleys have been exalted, for the mountains
were once the bed of the sea. Marine fossils maybe gathered
from the tops of some of our highest hills.

AND TUB ATTRIBUTES OF flOD.

The coal beds, to which England owes much of her great-
ness, arc the remains of vast forests of pines, cacti, euphor-
bias, ferns, and palms— or rather, of plants resembling those
species— that have been buried in some convulsion of nature.
The remains of 300 different kinds of plants, having no living
I'eprcsentatives, have been found in the coal measures.

The secondary limestones appear to be almost entirely
composed of the remains of shell fish. In one piece of rock,
weighing only an ounce and a half, 10,000 microscopic shells
have been counted.

Skeletons of animals that could not exist in the present
state of our globe, of enormous size and marvellous form,
dragons and reptiles, and unwieldy mammals, are constantly
met with in our stone quarries. Countless ages must have
elapsed since they were buried in the sand and mud, that
were afterwards converted into stone.

And how wonderfully is the power of God exhibited in the
100,000 different kinds of plants that clothe the surface of
the earth, and in the countless millions of living things that
people earth, and air, and sea.

God is not great in great things only. His power is equally
displayed in the animacule whose ocean is a drop of water,
and in the monster 100 feet in length that tempests the mighty
deep. It is seen alike in the dwarf alpine willow, of which
" half a dozen trees, with all their branches, leaves, flowers,
and roots, might be compressed between two of the pages of

THE BOOK OF NATURE

a lady's pocket-book without touching each other,'' and in the
mighty Banyan tree of the Nerbudda, which has given shel-
ter to an army of 7,000 men. Space does not limit God's
power. The larger our telescope the greater are the wonders
we command : the more powerful our microscope the more
numerous are the objects we discover. There are creatures
living upon other creatures, as the ticks upon sheep— these are
called parasites ; now the microscope has revealed a parasite
of a parasite.

I think, then, we may see that the Omniscience, the Om-
nipresence, and the Omnipotence of God are stamped upon
his works. The heathen have seen this, for the idols brought
from Nineveh by Mr. Layard, have the wings of eagles, and
the bodies of lions : " the subUmest images that could be
borrowed from Nature to denote the power and ubiquity of
God."

The Second Part shall contain illustrations of Qod's

Wisdom.

We judge of the wisdom of God in the operations of
Nature from the wonderful adaptation of the means to the
end. It is apparent wherever we turn our eyes. The flowers
of the field, the beasts of the earth, the fowls that fly in the
open firmament of heaven— all things that God hath made,
behold they are very good ; in tvisdom He hath made them
all— the earth is full of his riches.

I will call your attention in this part of my work to the

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OP GOD.

plants particularly. They afford abundant indications of
God's wisdom, and they perform no mean part in the econo-
my of nature. They form the connecting link between '
animate and inanimate matter.

Animals are taken from the earth ; and when they die they
return to the earth. In Ufe they are sustained by earthy
particles. It is the plant that converts the earth into food
for man and beast. The mode of this conversion is simple
and beautiful. The spon^oles* of the plant absorb the juices
of the soil ; these juices ascend the stem ; when they reach
the leaves they are brought into contact with the air, which,
by a chemical process, converts them into what is c&Wed proper
juice. This juice descends between the old wood and the
bark, and hardens into new wood. The vegetable substances
thus secreted are four : gum, sugar, fecula, and lignine. But
the all-wise God has modified these in the most marvellous
way to supply the various wants of his creatures.

The bare enumeration of the necessaries and luxuries we
obtain from plants would occupy no inconsiderable portion of
time. I will mention but a few, whose origin is least familiar
to the majority of people :
Sago is obtained from the stem of the Landan tree, which

grows in the Moluccas.
Tapioca, from the tubers of the Jatropha Manihot, an Amer-
ican plant. __^____
• The minute openings at the ends of the fibres of the roots.

THE BOOK OP NATURE

Arrow-root, from the underground stem of the Maranta At-
undinacea, a kind of reed growing in the East and West
Indies.
Cloves are the flower-buds of the CaryophylluB aromaticiis,

a tree which grows wild in the Moluccas.
Cinnamon is the bark of a kind of laurel (^Lauras cinnamo-

mum) found in the eastern parts of Asia.
The Nutmeg is the seed of Myrutica officinalis; and Mace

is the covering which separates it from the husk.
Ginger is the root of a kind of flag (^Zingiber officinale), cul-
tivated in the East Indies.
Camphor is a gum obtained from a forest tree, the Zaurus
camphora, of which extensive groves are met with on the
banks of the Canton river in China.
Capers are the leaf buds of a shrub (^Capparis spinosa), a

native of the south of Europe.
Cayenne is the ground pod of the red Capsicum of India.

Plants that are hurtful to some animals are beneficial to
others. The horse, the sheep, and the goat feed upon the
water-hemlock of Europe, which is certain poison to the cow.
The larva of Alstroemeriana (a moth) feeds upon the hemlock
— upon that which poisoned Socrates. The stinging nettle is
the favourite food of numerous insects, among others, of the
caterpillers, of the beautiful Red Admiral and Peacock but-
terflies.

" Even bees, the little almsmen of spring bowers,
Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers."— ^eofa.

)

AND THE ATTEIBUTES OF GOD.

All parts of plants afford food to one living thing or another.
Consider the oak, which is more prolific in animal life, sup-
plying more insects with food than any other tree. Nearly
2,000 kinds of living things derive their sustenance from it.
The grubs of various kinds of Cynips feed upon the roots, the
branches, the buds, and the flower-stalks. The leaves supply
food to a variety of caterpillars, and to the cockchafer or
oakweb-beetle. The bark is the residence of Scolytus pyg-
moeus, and the very timber is eaten by the grub of the stag-
beetle.

Is not the wisdom of God to be seen in the economy by
which nothing is wasted, and every want supplied ?

Another important office that vegetation is found to per-
form is the purification of the air. The air is composed of various
gases, the principal of which are oxygen and carbonic acid.
Animals in respiration consume oxygen, and discharge car-
bonic acid ; but plants consume carbonic acid and discharge
oxygen, and thus the balance is maintained.

I will conclude this portion of my work with an instance of
God's wisdom, as it is exerted for the reproduction of the
plant.

The Valisneria spiralis is a plant that grows under water.
It is a native of the South of Europe. Its flowers are dioe-
cious. To secure the fertility of the plant, it is necessary
that the pollen or fine dust of the male flower should be
brought in contact with the female blossoms ; but how is this

THE BOOK OF NATURE

to be accomplished? It is effected in this manner: The
female blossoms have long stalks, twisted like the spring of
a bird-trap. When these blossoms are ready for the action of
the pollen the stalks untwist until the flowers float upon the
surface, where they open. The male blossoms are in the
shape of bladders, and have very short stalks ; but when the
pollen they contain is ripe they detach themselves from these,
rise to the surface, surround the females, and expand. The
female blossoms are closed as soon as their fertilization is ac-
complished; their stalks are gradually coiled up; and the
seed is perfected beneath the surface of the water.

The third part shall contain illustrations of the Goodness
of God.

God, without disturbing the general order of things, could
have given every plant as offensive a smell as that of the
stinking hellebore, as bitter a taste as that of rue, and as un-
attractive a colour as that of the navelwort. He could have
rendered every sight hideous to man, and every sound dis-
cordant, instead of making, as He has done, " all nature
beauty to his eye, and music to his ear." Herein is a strik-
ing instance of God's goodness. Another may be seen in
the fact, that a severe winter is usually accompanied by an
unusual supply of hips and haws and other berries, the winter
food of birds.

" A great haw year,
A great snaw year,"

says the north countryman. Indeed, so apparent is God's

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

providential care^ such mitigating circumstances attend what
would otherwise he great calamities, so well is " the back
fitted for the burden," that men have coined several proverbs
to express their sense of God's goodness in this respect. —
The most beautiful of these is, perhaps, " Qod temper 9 the
wind to the shorn lamb.*'

The life of the large white butterfly, of England, affords
a curious insight to natural history to those who have not,
studied the subject; and it shews the goodness of God m
two different lights, as it is exemplified

1st. In the protection of insects.

2nd. In the prevention of an undue increase of them.

The large white butterfly (^Pieris Brasaicce) feeds upon
the juices of flowers. How wonderful, then, is the instinct
which teaches it to lay its eggs upon the cabbage — a plant
totally different from those which supply its own food ; but
the one most suited to the wants of its caterpillars ! Every
one of the eggs it lays is under the care of Providence ; for
be it remembered, that that egg, minute as it is, bears an
infinitely larger proportion to the human frame than that
frame does to the universe ; and the life of the grub within
the egg a far larger proportion to human Hfe than that life
does to eternity.

In about three weeks after the egg has been Ijwd, the cater-
pillar breaks forth. It grows rapidly, changing its skin three
or four times before it reaches its full size. It changes the
skin of its whole body^ even to the eyes.

THE BOOK OP NATURE

It is necessary that the caterpillar should be a glutton, for
it has to prepare and strengthen itself for a fast of many
months' duration. Accordingly it eats voraciously. It has
many enemies. The most formidable of these is the ichneu-
mon fly. This is a small black insect which settles on the
caterpillar's back, bores a hole in its skin, and lays its eggs
in the wound. The caterpillar lives on ; the eggs of the ichneu-
mon are hatched ; the grubs feed upon the fatty portion of
the caterpillar, growing as it grows. The time comes for the
unfortunate insect to take its chrysalis state, and it seeks a
convenient spot for the change ; but the ichneumon grubs,
finding no more food in preparation, hold a grand carnival
upon its vitals, eat their way through its skin, and wrap them-
selves in their silken cocoons for the winter. But supposing
the insect to have escaped the birds, the ichneumons, and
its other enemies, it casts its caterpillar skin and legs, and ap-
pears a limbless chrysalis, suspended by a thread to the near-
est object in a most remarkable way. It spends the winter
securely protected from the cold, and in spring bursts forth
into life and beauty.

The various means of escape from their enemies, with which
God has provided his inferior creatures, exemplify his good-
ness in a remarkable manner.

The jointed armour, the offensive weapons (the stin^, the
nippers, the poisonous bristles, &c.), the high motive power,
the forbidding aspect — assumed or laid aside at will — are so
many preservatives which, as a rule, fail only when an undue

AND THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

increase of the creatures that possess them renders a partial
destruction of those creatures necessary to the comfort of the
higher orders of existences.

I have alluded to the habits of the ichneumon. The cater-
pillar of the puss moth (^Cerura vinuld) is furnished with
an extraordinary means of repelling the attacks of this formid-
able foe. It has a double tail, the branches of which can be
opened till they form a considerable angle. These branches
are furnished with red thongs, and are a pair of perfect whips,
which can be used by their owner with considerable vigour to
lash its enemies away.

The striking resemblance borne by many insects to objects
met with in their habitats, is a great safeguard to them.

The caterpillar of the peppered moth {Amphidasis Betvr
larid) is found on young oaks in England. It is the coun-
terpart of an oak twig. Its colour is green ; it is several
inches in length ; when at rest it clings to a branch by its
hind legs, and holds itself stiff and straight. Its head is
brown and bifid, and exactly resembles two unopened leaf-
buds. Rosel remarks upon the consternation of his gardener
who attempted to break off, from a plant he was pruning, a
thing which proved to be endued with feeling and motion — a
caterpillar allied to the species I have mentioned.

The sword-grass moth (^Calocampa exoleta) in repose re-
sembles a knotty piece of wood ; and the lappet moth ( Gait-
tropacha quercifolia), a bunch of dried leaves.

As far as we can judge, insects are incapable of feeling

THE BOOK OP NATURE.

acute pain. You may run a pin through a sleeping moth
without disturbing it. You may turn the tail of that vo^^^.
cious insect, the dragon-fly, to its mouth, and it will make a
meal of it. A crane-fly will fly away, and follow its instincts,
and live out its life, though half its legs be gone. At the
same time we have no reason to infer that insects do not
thoroughly enjoy their existence. Who that has stood by an
ant-hill or a bee-hive, and watched its busy inhabitants, could
doubt that there were very powerful interests and desires
known to the little beings who laboured so industriously and
so well ? And enjoyment lies in the possession of interest
and in the satisfaction of desire.

The last proof of God's goodness that I shall allude to, is
the very power (which we have been considering throughout
this work) which creation has of drawing us to the Creator.
God will not have us forget Him. We are surrounded by
monitors charged by Him with messages of love. Every
feature of the fair face of nature is an index to nature's God.
We contemplate its beauties, and we are irresistibly led to
consider the perfection of Him from whom they sprung,
until we are ready to exclaim with the poet —

" These are thy wondrous works, Parent of Good,

Almighty, thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair — thyself how wondrous thou I

Unspeakable, who sit'st above these heavens,

To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works, yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.