NA'TURE, a word of vast and compre hensive signification, embracing as it were, the whole universe—all that is comprised under the superintending cars of the great Creator. Thus when we say, Nature is benevolent and wise, we under stand either the Deity himself, or power performing the will of the Deity, and conducting everything in this world under his order : a notion supported by some ancient systems of philosophy, adopted by poets, and most easy to popu lar idea. Independently of this, however, we often say Nature herself, ,t-e. in a merely figurative sense; personifying the Laws of nature, that is, the properties of matter. When, therefore, we say, that nature covers the earth with abundance, we mean that God covers the earth with abundance ; when we say that nature is magnificent and inexhaustible, we mean that creation is magnificent and inex haustible. When we speak of the study of nature, we mean the study of creation ; which embraces first the knowledge of things, and secondly the knowledge of the properties of things. Nature (mean ing thereby the whole body of created things) presents an assemblage of objects in every respect worthy of the attention of mankind. Nature is made to conform in some degree to the hand of man, and resist only when his ignorance violates its essential order. It yields its secrets to his inquiries ; to his sensibility it presents the most engaging images; and remains, to all ages, a picture perpetually renewed of the !primitive creation of God.—There
is another sense, too, in which the word nature is of continual occurrence ; viz., the nature of man; lay which we under stand the peculiar constitution of his body or mind, or the qualities of the species which distinguish him from other animals. So also we express by this word, the es sential qualities or attribntes of any other thing; as the nature of blood, of a metal, of plants, &c. Again, when we allnde to the established or regular course of things, we say, this or that event is not accord ing to nature.—In the Fine Arts, nature often means the successful imitation of nature; but, with artists of a higher order, nature does not signify a mere copy, but as it were, the expression of the ideal of nature, at which she aims in all her for mations, yet without over absolutely at taining it.—By the law of nature is un derstood, that system of principles which human reason has discovered to regulate the conduct of man in all his various re lations. In its most extensive sense, it comprehends man's duties to God, to him self, and to all mankind.