instances in the range of animals from the
mollusc to man; examining how one animal form is nobler than another, by
the more manifest presence of these attributes, and chiefly endeavoring
to show how much there is of admirable and lovely, even in what is
commonly despised. At present I have only to mark the conclusions at
which we have as yet arrived respecting the rank of the theoretic
faculty, and then to pursue the inquiry farther into the nature of vital
beauty.

As I before said, I pretend not to have enumerated all the sources of
material beauty, nor the analogies connected with them; it is probable
that others may occur to many readers, or to myself as I proceed into
more particular inquiry, but I am not careful to collect all conceivable
evidence on the subject. I desire only to assert and prove some certain
principles, and by means of these to show, in some measure, the inherent
worthiness and glory of God's works and something of the relations they
bear to each other and to us, leaving the subject to be fully pursued,
as it only can be, by the ardor and affection of those whom it may
interest.

Sec. 2. Typical beauty not created for man's sake.

Sec. 3. But degrees of it for his sake admitted.

Sec. 4. What encouragement hence to be received.

The qualities above enumerated are not to be considered as stamped upon
matter for our teaching or enjoyment only, but as the necessary
consequence of the perfection of God's working, and the inevitable stamp
of his image on what he creates. For it would be inconsistent with his
Infinite perfection to work imperfectly in any place, or in any matter;
wherefore we do not find that flowers and fair trees, and kindly skies,
are given only where man may see them and be fed by them, but the Spirit
of God works everywhere alike, where there is no eye to see, covering
all lonely places with an equal glory, using the same pencil and
outpouring the same splendor, in the caves of the waters where the
sea-snakes swim, and in the desert where the satyrs dance, among the
fir-trees of the stork, and the rocks of the conies, as among those
higher creatures whom he has made capable witnesses of his working.
Nevertheless, I think that the admission of different degrees of this
glory and image of himself upon creation, has the look of something
meant especially for us; for although, in pursuance of the appointed
system of government by universal laws, these same degrees exist where