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BRIDGEWATER TREATISES.
CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD
HAVE PUBLISHED,
ASTRONOMY AND GENERAL PHYSICS, consideredwith reference to Natural Theology, by theRev. William Whewell, M. A., Fellow and Tutor ofTrinity College, Cambridge; being the Third Part ofthe Bridgewater Treatises on the Power, Wisdom, andGoodness of God, as manifested in the Creation.
The series of Treatises, of which the present is one, is publishedunder the following circumstances:—
The Right Honourable and Rev. Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater,died in the month of February, 1825; he directed certaintrustees therein named, to invest in the public funds, the sum ofeight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividendsthereon, to be held at the disposal of the President, forthe time being, of the Royal Society of London, to be paid tothe person or persons nominated by him. The Testator fartherdirected, that the person or persons selected by the said President,should be appointed to write, print and publish one thousandcopies of a work, on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness ofGod, as manifested in the Creation; illustrating such work, by allreasonable arguments, as, for instance, the variety and formationof God’s creatures in the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms;the effect of digestion, and, thereby, of conversion; theconstruction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of otherarguments; as also by discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts,sciences, and the whole extent of literature.
He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale ofthe works so published, should be paid to the authors of theworks.
The late President of the Royal Society, Davies Gilbert, Esq.,requested the assistance of his Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury,and of the Bishop of London, in determining upon the bestmode of carrying into effect, the intentions of the Testator.Acting with their advice, and with the concurrence of a noblemanimmediately connected with the deceased, Mr. Davies Gilbertappointed the following eight gentlemen to write separateTreatises in the different branches of the subjects here stated:—
I. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and IntellectualConstitution of Man, by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D. D.,Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh.
II. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Conditionof Man, by John Kidd, M. D., F. R. S., Regius Professor ofMedicine in the University of Oxford.
III. Astronomy and General Physics, considered with referenceto Natural Theology, by the Rev. William Whewell, M. A.,F. R. S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
IV. The Hand: its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincingDesign, by Sir Charles Bell, K. H., F. R. S.
V. Animal and Vegetable Physiology, by Peter Mark Roget,M. D., Fellow of and Secretary