Man as I trust has been made apparent to the consciousness and conviction of the reader, is an intelligent, moral, religious, and spiritual creature; and we have to discuss the difficulty, or perplexity, or objection, which arises in our minds, when we consider such a creature, as occupying an habitation, which is but one among many globes, apparently equally fitted to be the dwelling-places of living things;—a mere speck in the immensity of creation;—an atom among such a vast array of material structures;—a world, as we needs must deem it, among millions of other objects, which appear to have an equal claim to be regarded as worlds.

The difficulty appears to be great, either way. Can the earth alone be the theatre of such intelligent, moral, religious and spiritual action? On the other hand; Can we conceive such action to go on in the other bodies of the universe? If we take the latter alternative, we must people other planets and other systems with men, such as we are, even as to their history. For the intellectual and moral condition of man implies a history of the species: and the view of man's condition, which religion presents, not only involves a scheme of which the history of the human race is a part, but also asserts a peculiar reference had, in the provisions of God, to the nature of man; and even a peculiar relation and connexion between the human and the divine nature.