shall find so Favourable Acceptance as to â—ncourage me to proceed God granting Life and Health the Reader may expect more if otherwise I must be content to be laid aside as useless and satisfie my self in having made this Experiment As for this Discourse it is the Substance of some Common Places so in the University of Cambridge they call their Morning Divinity Exercises delivered in Trinity-College Chappel when I was Fellow of that Society which I have enlarged with the Addition of some Collections out of what hath been since Written by the forementioned Authors upon my Subject I have been careful to admit nothing for matter of Fact or Experiment but what is undoubtedly true lest I should build upon a Sandy and Ruinous Foundation and by the admixture of what is False render that which is True suspicious I might have added many more Particulars nay my Text warrants me to run over all the visible Works of God in particular and to Trace the Footsteps of his Wisdom in the Composition Order Harmony and Uses of every one of them as well as of those that I have Selected But First This would be a Task far transcending my Skill and Abilities nay the joynt Skill and Endeavours of all men now living or that shall live after a Thousand Ages should the World last so long For no Man can find out the Work that God maketh from the beginning to the end Eccles. 3. 11. Secondly I was willing to Consult the Infirmity of the Reader or indeed of Mankind in general which after a short confinement to one sort of Dish is apt to loath it though never so wholesome and which at first was most pleasant and acceptable and so to moderate my Discourse as to make an end of Writing before he should be quite tired with Reading I shall now add a word or two concerning the Usefulness of the Argument or Matter of this Discourse and the Reason I had to make Choice of it besides what I have already mentioned First The Belief of a Deity being the Foundation of all Religion Religion being nothing but a devout Worshipping of God or an inclination of Mind to Serve and Worship him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is it is a Matter of the highest Concernment to be firmly Settled and Established in a full Perswasion of this main Point Now this must be Demonstrated by Arguments drawn from the Light of Nature and Works of the Creation For as all other Sciences so Divinity proves not but supposes its Subject taking it for granted that by natural Light Men are sufficiently convinced of the being of a Deity There are indeed supernatural Demonstrations of this fundamental Truth but not common to all Persons or Times and so liable to Cavil and Exception by Atheistical Persons as inward Illuminations of Mind a Spirit of Prophecy and fore telling future Contingents Illustrious Miracles and the like But these Proofs taken from Effects and Operations exposed to every Mans view not to be denied or questioned by any are most effectual to convince all that deny or doubt of it Neither are they only convictive of the greatest and subtlest Adversaries but intelligible also to the meanest Capacities For you may hear illiterate Persons of the lowest Rank of the Commonolty affirming that they need no Proof of the being of a God for that every Pile of Grass or Ear of Corn sufficiently proves that For say they All the men of the World cannot make such a thing as one of these and if they cannot do it who can or did make it but God To tell them that it made it self or sprung up by chance would be as ridiculous as to tell the greatest Philosopher so Secondly The particulars of this Discourse serve not only to Demonstrate the being of a Deity but also to illustrate some of his principal Attributes as namely his Infinite Power and Wisdom The vast multitude of Creatures and those not only small but immensely great The Sun and Moon and all the Heavenly Host are Effects and Proofs of his Almighty Power The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Psal. 19. 1. The admirable Contrivance of all and each of them the adapting all the parts of Animals to their several uses The Provision that is made for their Sustenance which is often taken notice of in Scripture Psal. 145. 15 16. The Eyes of all wait upon thee thou givest them their Meat in due season Thou openest thy Hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing Matth. 6. 26. Behold the Fowls of the Air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into Barns yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them Psalm 147. 9. He giveth to the Beast his food and to the young Ravens when they cry And Lastly Their mutual subserviency to each other and unanimous conspiring to promote and carry on the publick Good are evident Demonstrations of his Sovereign Wisdom Lastly They serve to Stir up and Increase in us the Affections and Habits of Admiration Humility and Gratitude Psalm 8. 3. When I considered the Heavens the Work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is man that thou are mindful of him or the Son of man that thou visitest him And to these purposes the Holy Psalmist is very frequent in the Enumeration and Consideration of these Works which may warrant me in doing the like and justifie the denominating such a Discourse as this rather Theological than Philosophical THE CONTENTS OF the Coelestial Bodies pag. 2 3 4. 45. to 51. Of Terrestrial Bodies p. 4. 52. The number of Animals Vegetables and Fossils guess'd at p. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. The Aristotelian Hypothesis p. 12 13. The Epicurean Hypothesis p. 20. to 40. The Cartesian Hypothesis p. 20. to 40. All these considered and censur'd from p. 12. to 40. A Plastick Principle above Matter and Motion yet not God himself p. 32. to 37. The differences of Natural and Artificial things p. 41. The Natures and Divisions of Bodies p. 41 42 43. The several textures ends and uses of them p. 44. As of the Sun p. 47 48. Of the Moon and other Planets p. 48 49. The advantage of Eclipses in Chronology and Geography p. 51. Of the fixt Stars p. 49. 51. Of Fire p. 52. 54. Of Air p. 54 to 60. The respiration of the Foetus in the Womb explained p. 56. to 59. Of Water p. 60 to 62. Of Earth p. 62 63. Of Meteors p. 63. Of Rain p. 64. Of Winds p. 65. Of Stones p. 67. 70. Transparent colour'd opaque variously figur'd like parts of Animals Load-stone c. ibid. Of Metals p. 70. to 73. Of Vegetation and Plants their different parts and uses of their Roots Fibres Bark Wood Vessels Leaves Claspers Prickles Gems Flowers Fruits Seeds c. from p. 74 to 86. Of Sensitive or Brute Animals Quadrupeds Birds Fishes Insects their regular and peculiar
that the admirable Order and incredible Constancy of the Heavenly Bodies and their Motions whereupon the Preservation and Welfare of all things doth depend is not governed by Mind and Understanding he himself is to be accounted void thereof And again Shall we saith he when we see an artificial Engine as a Sphere or Dial or the like at first sight acknowledg that it is a work of Reason and Art Cùm autem impetum coeli admirabili cum celeritate moveri vertique videamus constantissimè conficientem vicissitudines anniversarias cum summâ Salute Conservatione rerum omnium dubitare quin ea non solùm ratione fiant sed excellenti quâdam Divinâque ratione And can we when we see the force of the Heavens moved and whirled about with admirable Celerity most constantly finishing its anniversary Vicissitudes to the eminent Welfare and Preservation of all things doubt at all that these things are performed not only by Reason but by a certain excellent and Divine Reason To these things I shall add an Observation which I must confess my self to have borrowed of the honourable Person more than once mentioned already that even the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon though they be frightful things to the superstitious Vulgar and of ill influence on Mankind if we may believe the no less superstitious Astrologers yet to knowing men that can skilfully apply them they are of great Use and such as common Heads could never have imagined Since not only they may on divers Occasions help to settle Chronology and rectifie the Mistakes of Historians that writ many Ages ago but which is though a less Wonder yet of greater Utility they are as things yet stand necessary to define with competent Certainty the Longitude of places or points on the Terraqueous Globe which is a thing of very great moment not only to Geography but to the most useful and important Art of Navigation To which may be added which I shall hereafter mention that they serve to demonstrate the spherical roundness of the Earth So that I may well conclude with the Psalmist Psalm 19. 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Of Terrestrial inanimate simple Bodies I come now to consider the Terrestrial Bodies I shall say nothing of the whole Body of the Earth in general because I reserve that as one of the Particulars I shall more carefully and curiously examine Terrestrial Bodies according to our Method before propounded are either inanimate or animate and the inanimate either simple or mixt Simple as the four Elements Fire Water Earth and Air I call these Elements in compliance as I said before with the vulgarly received Opinion not that I think them to be the Principles or component Ingredients of all other sublunary Bodies I might call them the four great Aggregates of Bodies of the same Species or four sorts of Bodies of which there are great Aggregates These notwithstanding they are endued with contrary Qualities and are continually encroaching one upon another yet they are so balanced and kept in such an aequilibrium that neither prevaileth over other but what one gets in one place it loseth in another First Fire cherisheth and reviveth by its Heat without which all things would be torpid and without Motion nay without Fire no Life it being the vital Flame residing in the Blood that keeps the bodily Machine in motion and renders it a fit Organ for the Soul to work by The Uses of Fire I do not here speak of the Peripateticks Elementary Fire in the concave of the Moon which is but a mere Figment but our ordinary Culinary are in a manner infinite for dressing and preparing of Victuals baked boyled and roast for melting and refining of Metals and Minerals for the fusion of Glass a Material whose Uses are so many that it is not easie to enumerate them it serving us to make Windows for our Houses drinking Vessels Vessels to contain and preserve all sorts of fermented Liquors destilled Waters Spirits Oils Extracts and other Chymical Preparations as also Vessels to destil and prepare them in for Looking Glasses Spectacles Microscopes and Telescopes whereby our Sight is not only relieved but wonderfully assisted to make rare Discoveries For making all sorts of Instruments for Husbandry mechanick Arts and Trades all sorts of Arms or Weapons of War defensive and offensive for fulminating Engines for burning of Lime baking of Bricks Tiles and all sorts of Potters Vessels or earthen Ware for casting and forging metalline Vessels and Utensils for Destillations and all Chymical Operations hinted before in the use of Glass For affording us Light for any Work or Exercise in winter Nights for digging in Mines and dark Carvens And finally by its comfortable Warmth securing us from the injuries of Cold or relieving when we have been bitten and benummed with it A Subject or Utensil of so various and inexplicable use who could have invented and formed but an infinitely wise and powerful Efficient Secondly The Air serves us and all Animals to breath in containing the fewel of that vital Flame we spake of without which it would speedily languish and go out So necessary is it for us and other Land-Animals that without the use of it we could live but very few minutes Nay Fishes and other Water-Animals cannot abide without the use of it For if you put Fish into a Vessel of a narrow mouth full of Water they will live and swim there not only days and months but even years But if with your Hand or any other cover you stop the Vessel so as wholly to exclude the Air or interrupt its communication with the Water they will suddenly be suffocated as Rondeletius affirms he often experimented If you fill not the Vessel up to the top but leave some space empty for the Air to take up and then clap your hand upon the mouth of the Vessel the Fishes will presently contend which shall get uppermost in the Water that so they may enjoy the open Air which I have also observed them to do in a Pool of Water that hath been almost dry in the Summer-time because the Air that insinuated itself into the Water did not suffice them for Respiration Neither is it less necessary for Insects than it is for other Animals but rather more these having more Air-vessels for their Bulk by far than they there being many Orifices on each side their Bodies for the admission of Air which if you stop with Oil or Hony the Insect presently dies and revives no more This was an Observation of the Ancients though the reason of it they did not understand Oleo illito Insecta omnia exanimantur Plin. which was nothing but the intercluding of the Air for though you put Oil upon them if you put it not upon or obstruct those Orifices therewith whereby they draw the Air they suffer nothing If you obstruct only some and not others the parts which are near and
the Exanguious both Terrestrial and Aquatick may in derogation to the precedent Rule for number vie even with Plants themselves For the Exanguious alone by what that Learned and Critical Naturalist my Honoured Friend Dr. Martin Lister hath already observed and delineated I conjecture cannot be fewer than 1800 or 2000 Species perhaps many more The Butterflies and Beetles are such numerous Tribes that I believe in our own native Country alone the Species of each kind may amount to 150 or more And if we should make the Caterpillers and Hexapods from whence these come to be distinct Species as most Naturalists have done the number will be doubled and these two Genera will afford us 600 Species But if those be admitted for distinct Species I see no reason but their Aureliae also may pretend to a Specifick difference from the Caterpillers and Butterflies and so we shall have 300 Species more therefore we exclude both these from the degree of Species making them to be the same Insect under a different larva or Habit. The Fly-kind if under that name we comprehend all other flying Insects as well such as have four as such as have but two Wings of Both which kinds there are many subordinate Genera will be found in multitude of Species to equal if not exceed both the forementioned kinds The creeping Insects that never come to be winged though for number they may fall short of the flying or winged yet are they also very numerous as by running over the several kinds I could easily demonstrate Supposing then there be a thousand several sorts of Insects in this Island and the Sea near it if the same Proportion holds between the Insects native of England and those of the rest of the World as doth between Plants Domestick and Exotick that is as I guess near a Decuple the Species of Insects in the whole Earth Land and Water will amount to 10000 and I do believe they rather exceed than fall short of that sum The number of Plants contained in C. Bauhin's Pinax is about 6000 which are all that had been described by the Authors that wrote before him or observed by himself in which Work besides mistakes and repetitions incident to the most wary and knowing men in such a Work as that there are a great many I might say some Hundreds put down for different Species which in my Opinion are but accidental Varieties Which I do not say to detract from the excellent pains and performance of that Learned Judicious and Laborious Herbarist or to defraud him of his deserved Honour but only to shew that he was too much sway'd by the Opinions then generally current among Herbarists that different Colour or multiplicity of Leaves in the Flower and the like accidents were sufficient to constitute a Specifick difference But supposing there had been 6000 then known and described I cannot think but that there are in the World more then double that number there being in the vast continent of America as great a variety of Species as with us and yet but few common to Europe or perhaps Asrick and Asia and if on the other side the Equator there be much Land still remaining undiscovered as probably there may we must suppose the number of Plants to be far greater What can we infer from all this If the number of Creatures be so exceeding great how great nay immense must needs be the Power and Wisdom of him who form'd them all For that I may borrow the Words of a Noble and Excellent Author as it argues and manifests more skill by far in an Artificer to be able to frame both Clocks and Watches and Pumps and Mills and Granadoes and Rockets then he could display in making but one of those sorts of Engines so the Almighty discovers more of his Wisdom in forming such a vast multitude of different sorts of Creatures and all with admirable and irreproveable Art than if he had created but a few For this declares the greatness and unbounded Capacity of his Understanding Again the same superiority of Knowledg would be displaid by contriving Engines of the same kind or for the same purposes after different fashions as the moving of Clocks or other Engines by Springs instead of Weights So the Infinitely Wise Creator hath shewn in many Instances that he is not confin'd to one only Instrument for the working one Effect but can perform the same thing by divers means So though Feathers seem necessary for flying yet hath he enabled several Creatures to fly without them as two sorts of Fishes and the Bat not to mention the numerous tribes of flying Insects In like manner though the Air-bladder in Fishes seems necessary for swimming yet some are so form'd as to swim without it viz. First The Cartilagineous kind which by what artifice they poise themselves ascend and descend at pleasure and continue in what depth of Water they list is as yet unknown to us Secondly The Cetaceous kind or Sea-Beasts differing in nothing almost from Quadrupeds but the want of Feet The Air which in respiration these receive into their Lungs may serve to render their Bodies equiponderant to the Water and the constriction or dilatation of it by the help of the Diaphragm and Muscles of respiration may probably assist them to ascend or descend in the Water by a light impulse thereof with their Fins Again though the Water being a cold Element the most wise God hath so attempered the blood and bodies of Fishes in general that a small degree of heat is sufficient to preserve their due consistency and motion and to maintain Life yet to shew that he can preserve a Creature in the Sea and in the coldest part of the Sea too that may have as great a degree of heat as Quadrupeds themselves he hath created great variety of these Cetaceous Fishes which converse chiefly in the Northern Seas whose whole Body being encompassed round with a copious Fat or Blubber which by reflecting and redoubling the internal heat and keeping off the external cold doth the same thing to them that Cloths do to us is enabled to abide the greatest cold of the Sea-water The reason why these Fishes delight to frequent chiefly the Northern-Seas is I conceive not only for the quiet which they enjoy there but because the Northern Air which they breath being more fully charged with nitrous particles is fittest to maintain the vital Heat in that Activity as is sufficient to move such an unwieldy bulk as their Bodies are with due celerity and to bear up against and repell the ambient cold and may likewise enable them to continue longer under water than a warmer and thinner Air could I come now to the second part of the words In Wisdom hast thou made them all In discoursing wherof I shall endeavour to make out in particulars what the Psalmist here asserts in general concerning the works of God that they are all very wisely contrived and adapted to ends
Strands and Limits I mean at first when it was natural to it to overflow and stand above the Earth All these particulars declare abundance of Wisdom in their primitive Constitution This last the Psalmist takes notice of in the 6th 7th 8th and 9th verses of this Psalm Speaking of the Earth at the first Creation he saith Thou coveredst it with the Deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away The mountains ascend the valleys descend unto the place thou hast prepared for them Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over That they turn not again to cover the earth Again the great use and convenience the beauty and variety of so many Springs and Fountains so many Brooks and Rivers so many Lakes and standing Pools of Water and these so scattered and dispersed all the Earth over that no great part of it is destitute of them without which it must without a supply other ways be desolate and void of Inhabitants afford abundant Arguments of Wisdom and Counsel That Springs should break forth on the sides of Mountains most remote from the Sea That there should way be made for Rivers through Straits and Rocks and subterraneous Vaults so that one would think that Nature had cut a way on purpose to derive the Water which else would overflow and drown whole Countries That the water passing through the Veins of the Earth should be rendred fresh and potable which it cannot be by any percolations we can make but the saline Particles will pass through a tenfold Filtre That in some places there should spring forth metallick and mineral Waters and hot Baths and these so constant and permanent for many Ages so convenient for divers medicinal Intentions and Uses the Causes of which things or the Means and Methods by which they are performed have not been as yet certainly discovered how can we reasonably deny that they are the Products and Effects of profound Counsel and Understanding Lastly The Earth which is the basis and support of all Animals and Plants and affords them the hard and solid part of their Bodies yielding us Food and Sustenance and partly also Cloathing How variously is the Surface of it distinguished into Hills and Valleys and Plains and high Mountains affording pleasant Prospects how curiously cloathed and adorned with the grateful verdure of Herbs and stately Trees either dispersed and scattered singly or as it were assembled in Woods and Groves and all these beautified and illustrated with elegant Flowers and Fruits quorum omnium incredibilis multitudo insatiabili varietate distinguitur as Tully saith This also shews forth to them that consider it both the Power and Wisdom of God So that we may conclude with Solomon Prov. 3 19. The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the Earth by Understanding hath he established the Heavens But now if we pass from Simple to Mixt Bodies we shall still find more matter of Admiration and Argument of Wisdom Of these we shall first consider those they call imperfectly Mixt or Meteors Of Meteors As first of all Rain which is nothing else but Water by the heat of the Sun divided into very small invisible Parts ascending in the Air till encountring the Cold it be by degrees condensed into Clouds and descends in Drops this though it be exhaled from the Salt Sea yet by this Natural Destillation is rendred Fresh and Potable which our Artificial Destillations have hitherto been hardly able to effect notwithstanding the eminent use it would be of to Navigators and the rewards promised to those that should resolve that Problem of destilling Fresh Water out of Salt That the Clouds should be so carried about by the Winds as to be almost equally dispersed and distributed no part of the Earth wanting convenient Showers unless when it pleaseth God for the punishment of a Nation to withhold Rain by a special interposition of his Providence or if any Land wants Rain they have a supply some other way as the Land of Egypt though there seldom falls any Rain there yet hath abundant recompence made it by the annual overflowing of the River This Distribution of the Clouds and Rain is to me I say a great Argument of Providence and divine Disposition for else I do not see but why there might be in some Lands continual successive Droughts for many Years till they were quite depopulated in others as lasting Rains till they were overflown and drowned and these if the Clouds moved casually often happening whereas since the ancientest Records of History we do not read or hear of any such droughts or inundations unless perhaps that of Cyprus wherein there fell no Rain there for Thirty Six Years till the Island was almost quite deserted in the Reign of Constantine Again if we consider the manner of the Rains descent destilling down gradually and by drops which is most convenient for the watering of the Earth whereas if it should fall down in a continued Stream like a River it would gall the Ground wash away Plants by the Roots overthrow Houses and greatly incommode if not suffocate Animals if I say we consider these things and many more that might be added we might in this respect also cry out with the Apostle O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! Secondly Another Meteor is the Wind which how many Uses it doth serve to is not easie to enumerate but many it doth viz. To ventilate and break the Air and dissipate noysom and contagious Vapors which otherwise stagnating might occasion many Diseases in Animals and therefore it is an Observation concerning our Native Country Anglia ventosa si non ventosa venenosa To transfer the Clouds from place to place for the more commodious watering of the Earth To temper the excesses of the Heat as they find who in Brasil New Spain the Neighbouring Islands and other the like Countries near the Equator reap the Benefit of the Breezes To fill the Sails of Ships and carry them on their Voyages to remote Countries which of what eminent advantage it is to Mankind for the procuring and continuing of Trade and mutual Commerce between the most distant Nations the illustrating every corner of the Earth and the perfecting Geography and natural History is apparent to every Man To this may be added the driving about of Windmills for grinding of Corn making of Oyl draining of Pools c. That it should seldom or never be so violent and boisterous as to overturn Houses yea whole Cities to tear up Trees by the Roots and prostrate Woods to drive the Sea over the lower Countries as were it the effect of Chance or meer natural Causes not moderated by a superiour Power it would in all likelihood often do All these things declare the Wisdom and Goodness of Him who bringeth the Winds out of his Treasures Of Inanimate mixt Bodies I proceed now
to such inanimate Bodies as are called Perfectè mixta perfectly mixt improperly enough they being many of them for ought I know as simple as those they call Elements These are Stones Metals Minerals and Salts In Stones which one would think were a neglected Genus what variety What beauty and elegancy What constancy in their temper and consistency in their Figures and Colours I shall speak of first some notable Qualities wherewith some of them are endued Secondly The remarkable Uses they are of to us The Qualities I shall instance in are first Colour which in some of them is most lively sparkling and beautiful the Carbuncle or Rubine shining with red the Sapphire with blue the Emerauld with green the Topaz or Chrysolite of the Ancients with a yellow or gold colour the Amethyst as it were tinctured with Wine the Opal varying its colours like changeable Taffaty as it is diversly exposed to the Light Secondly Hardness wherein some Stones exceed all other bodies and among them the Adamant all other Stones being exalted to that degree thereof that Art in vain endeavors to counterfeit it the factitious Stones of Chymists in imitation being easily detected by any ordinary Lapidist Thirdly Figure many of them shoot into regular Figures as Crystal and bastard Diamonds into Hexagonal others into those that are more elegant and compounded as those formed in imitation of the Shels of testaceous Fishes of all sorts Sharks Teeth and Vertebres c. If these be originally Stones or primary Productions of Nature in imitation of Shels and Fishes Bones and not the Shels and Bones themselves petrified as we have somtimes thought Some have a kind of vegetation and resemblance of Plants as Corals Pori and Fungites which grow upon the Rocks like Shrubs To which I might add our ordinary Star-stones and Trochites which I look upon as a sort of Rock-Plants Secondly For the Uses some serve for Building and many sorts of Vessels and Utensils for Pillars and Statues and other carved works in relieve for the Temples ornament of Palaces Portico's Piazzas Conduits c. as Freestone and Marble some to burn into Lime as Chalk and Limestone Some with the mixture of Beriglia or Kelp to make Glass as that the Venetians call Cuogolo and common Flints which serve also to strike Fire some to cover Houses as Slates some for marking as Morochthus and the forementioned Chalk which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serving moreover for manuring Land and some medicinal Uses some to make Vessels of which will endure the fire as that found in the Country of Chiavenna near Plurs To these useful Stones I might add the Warming-stone digged in Cornwal which being once well heated at the fire retains its warmth a great while and hath been found to give ease and relief in several Pains and Diseases particularly that of the internal Haemorrhoids I might also take notice that some Stones are endued with an Electrical or attractive Virtue I might spend much time in the discoursing of the most strange and unaccountable Nature and Powers of the Loadstone a Subject which hath exercised the Wits and Pens of the most acute and ingenious Philosophers and yet the Hypotheses which they have invented to give an account of its admirable phoenomena seem to me lame and unsatisfactory What can we say of the subtlety activity and penetrancy of its effluvia which no obstacle can stop or repel but they will make their way through all sorts of Bodies firm and fluid dense and rare heavy and light pellucid and opake Nay they will pass through a vacuity or empty space at least devoid of Air and any other sensible Body It s attractive power of Iron was known to the Ancients its verticity and direction to the Poles of the Earth is of later Invention Which of how infinite advantage it hath been to these two or three last Ages the great improvement of Navigation and advancement of Trade and Commerce by rendring the remotest Countries easily accessible the noble Discovery of a vast Continent or new World besides a multitude of unknown Kingdoms and Islands the resolving experimentally those ancient Problems of the Spherical roundness of the Earth of the Being of Antipodes of the Habitableness of the Torrid Zone and the rendring the whole Terraqueous Globe circumnavigable do abundantly demonstrate whereas formerly they were wont to coast it and creep along the Shores scarce daring to venture out of the Ken of Land when they did having no other guide but the Cynosura or Pole-star and those near it and in cloudy weather none at all As for Metals they are so many ways useful to Mankind and those Uses so well known to all that it would be lost labor to say any thing of them Only it is remarkable that those which are of most frequent and necessary use as Iron Brass and Lead are the most common and plentiful Others that are more rare may better be spared yet are they thereby qualified to be made the common measure and standard of the value of all other Commodities and so to serve for Coin or Money to which use they have been employed by all civil Nations in all Ages Of these Gold is remarkable for its admirable Ductility and Ponderosity wherein it excels all other bodies hitherto known I shall only add concerning Metals that they do pertinaciously resist all Transmutation and though one would sometimes think they were turned into a different Substance yet do they but as it were lurk under a Larva or Vizzard and may be reduced again into their natural Form and Complexions in despight of all the tortures of Vulcan or corrosive Waters Note That this was written above Thirty Years since when I thought I had reason to distrust what ever had then been reported or written to affirm the Transmutation of Metals one into another I shall omit the consideration of other Minerals and of Salts and Earths because I have nothing to say of their Uses but only such as refer to Man which I cannot affirm to have been the sole or primary End of the Formation of them Indeed to speak in general of these Terrestrial inanimate Bodies they having no such organization of parts as the Bodies of Animals nor any so intricate variety of Texture but that their production may plausibly be accounted for by an Hypothesis of matter divided into minute Particles or Atoms naturally indivisible of various but a determinate number of Figures and perhaps also differing in Magnitude and these moved and continually kept in motion according to certain established Laws or Rules we cannot so clearly discover the Uses for which they were Created but may probably conclude that among other Ends they were made for those for which they serve us and other Animals It is here to be noted that according to our Hypothesis the number of the Atomes of each several kind that is of the same Figure and Magnitude is not nearly equal but there be infinitely
more of some species than of others as of those that compound those vast Aggregates of Air Water and Earth more abundantly than of such as make up Metals and Minerals The reason whereof may probably be because those are necessary to the Life and Being of Man and all other Animals and therefore must be always at hand these only useful to Man and serving rather his Conveniences than Necessities The reason why I affirm the minute component Particles of Bodies to be naturally indivisible by any Agent we can employ even Fire it self which is the only Catholick Dissolvent other menstruums being rather Instruments than Efficients in all Solutions apt by reason of the figure and smalness of their Parts to cut and divide other Bodies as Wedges cleave Wood when actuated by fire or its heat which else would have no efficacy at all as Wedges have not unless driven by a Beetle the reason I say I have already given I shall now instance in a Body whose minute Parts appear to be indissoluble by the force of Fire and that is common Water which destill boil circulate work upon how you will by Fire you can only dissolve it into Vapour which when the motion ceases easily returns into Water again Vapour being nothing else but the minute Parts thereof by heat agitated and separated one from another For another Instance some of the most Learned and experienced Chymists do affirm Quicksilver to be intransmutable and therefore call it Liquor aeternus And I am of opinion that the same holds of all simple Bodies that their component Particles are indissoluble by any natural Agent Of Vegetables or Plants I have now done with Inanimate Bodies both Simple and Mixt. The Animate are First Such as are endued only with a Vegetative Soul and therefore commonly called Vegetables or Plants of which if we consider either their Stature and Shape or their Age and Duration we shall find it wonderful For why should some Plants rise up to a great height others creep upon the ground which perhaps may have equal seeds nay the lesser Plant many times the greater seed Why should each particular so observe its kind as constantly to produce the same Leaf for consistency figure division and edging and bring forth the same kind of Flower and Fruit and Seed and that though you translate it into a Soil which naturally puts forth no such kind of Plant so that it is some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth effect this or rather some intelligent plastick Nature as we have before intimated For what account can be given of the determination of the growth and magnitude of Plants from mechanical Principles of matter moved without the presidency and guidance of some superiour Agent Why may not Trees grow up as high as the Clouds or Vapours ascend or if you say the Cold of the superiour Air checks them why may they not spread and extend their lateral Branches so far till their distance from the Center of Gravity depress them to the Earth be the Tree never so high How comes it to pass that though by Culture and Manure they may be highly improved and augmented to a double treble nay some a much greater proportion in magnitude of all their Parts yet is this advance restrained within certain limits There is a maximum quod sic which they cannot exceed You can by no Culture or Art extend a Fennel Stalk to the stature and bigness of an Oak Then why should some be very long lived others only Annual or Biennial How can we imagine that any Laws of Motion can determine the situation of the leaves to come forth by pairs or alternately or circling the stalk the flowers to grow singly or in company and tusts to come forth the bosoms of the leaves and branches or on the tops of branches and stalks the figure of the leaves that they should be divided into so many jags or escallops and curiously indented round the edges as also of the flower-leaves their number and site the figure and number of the stamina and their apices the figure of the Style and Seed-vessel and the number of Cels into which it is divided That all this be done and all these parts duly proportioned one to another there seems to be necessary some intelligent Plastick Nature which may understand and regulate the whole Oeconomy of the Plant For this cannot be the Vegetative Soul because that is material and divisible together with the Body Which appears in that a Branch cut off of a Plant will take Root and grow and become a perfect Plant it self as we have already observed I had almost forgotten the complication of the Seed-leaves of some Plants in the Seed which is so strange that one cannot believe it to be done by Matter however moved by any Laws or Rules imaginable Some of them being so close plaited and straitly folded up and thrust together within the membranes of the Seed that it would puzzle a man to imitate it and yet none of the folds sticking or growing together so that they may easily be taken out of their cases and spread and extended even with ones Fingers Secondly If we consider each particular Part of a Plant we shall find it not without its End or Use The Roots for its stability and drawing nourishment from the Earth The Fibres to contain and convey the Sap. Besides which there is a large sort of Vessels to contain the proper and specific Juice of the Plant and others to carry Air for such a kind of Respiration as it needeth of which we have already spoken The outer and inner Bark in Trees serve to defend the Trunk and Boughs from the excesses of Heat and Cold and Drought and to convey the Sap for the Annual augmentation of the Tree For in truth every Tree may in some sence be said to be an Annual Plant both Leaf Flower and Fruit proceeding from the Coat that was superinduced over the Wood the last Year which Coat also never beareth any more but together with the old Wood serves as a Form or Block to sustain the succeeding annual Coat The Leaves before the Gemma or Bud be explicated to embrace and defend the Flower and Fruit which is even then perfectly formed afterwards to preserve the Branches Flowers and Fruit from the Injuries of the Summer Sun which would too much parch and dry them if they lay open and exposed to its Beams without any Shelter the Leaves I say qualifie and contemper the Heat and serve also to hinder the too hasty evaporation of the moisture about the Root not to mention the pleasant and delectable cooling and refreshing Shade they afford in the Summer time which was very much esteemed by the Inhabitants of hot Countries who always took great delight and pleasure to sit in the open Air under shady Trees Hence that expression so often repeated in Scripture of every Mans sitting under his own Vine and under his own
Winter-time See Mr. Boyl of Final Causes Besides these I have mentioned an Hundred others may be found in Books relating especially to Physick as that Dogs when they are Sick should vomit themselves by eating Grass That Swine should refuse Meat so soon as they feel themselves ill and so recover by Abstinence That the Bird Ibis should teach Men the way of administring Clysters Plin. lib. 8. cap. 27. The wild Goats of Dictamnus for drawing out of Darts and healing Wounds The Swallow the use of Celandine for repairing the Sight c. ibid. Of the truth of which because I am not fully satisfied I shall make no Inference from them Thirdly I shall remark the Care that is taken for the preservation of the Weak and such as are exposed to Injuries and preventing the encrease of such as are noisom and hurtful For as it is a Demonstration of the divine Power and Magnificence to create such variety of Animals not only great but small not only strong and couragious but also weak and timerous so is it no less Argument of his Wisdom to give to these Means and the Power and Skill of using them to preserve themselves from the violence and Injuries of those That of the weak some should dig Vaults and Holes in the Earth as Rabbets to secure themselves and their Young others should be armed with hard Shels others with Prickles the rest that have no such armature should be endued with great Swiftness or Pernicity And not only so but some also have their Eyes stand so prominent as the Hare that they can see as well behind as before them that so they may have their Enemy always in their Eye and long hollow moveable Ears to receive and convey the least sound or that which comes from far that they be not suddenly surprised or taken as they say napping As for Sheep which have no natural Weapons or Means to defend or secure themselves neither Heels to run nor claws to dig they are delivered into the Hand and committed to the care and tuition of Man and serving him for divers Uses are nourished and protected by him and so enjoying their Beings for a time by this means propagate and continue their Species So that there are none destitute of some Means to preserve themselves and their kind and these Means so effectual that notwithstanding all the endeavors and contrivances of Man and Beast to destroy them there is not to this day one Species lost of such as are mentioned in Histories and consequently and undoubtedly neither of such as were at first created Then for Birds of Prey and rapacious Animals it is remarkable what Aristotle observes That they are all solitary and go not in Flocks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Birds of Prey are gregarious Again That such Creatures do not greatly multiply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They for the most part breeding and bringing forth but one or two or at least a few young ones at once Whereas they that are feeble and timorous are generally multiparous or if they bring forth but few at once as Pigeons they compensate that by their often breeding viz. every Month but two throughout the Year by this means providing for the continuation of their kind Fourthly I shall note the exact Fitness of the Parts of the Bodies of Animals to every ones Nature and manner of living Of this Dr. More produces an eminent Instance in a poor contemptible Quadruped the Mole First of all saith he her dwelling being under ground where nothing is to be seen Nature hath so obscurely fitted her with Eyes that Naturalists can scarcely agree whether she hath any Sight at all or no In our Observation Moles have perfect Eyes and holes for them through the Skin so that they are outwardly to be seen by any that shall diligently search for them though indeed they are exceeding small not much bigger than a great Pins head But for amends what she is capable of for her defence and warning of danger she has very eminently conferred upon her for she is very quick of hearing doubtless her subterraneous Vaults are like Trunks to convey any Sound a great way And then her short Tail and short Legs but broad fore-Feet armed with sharp Claws we see by the event to what purpose they are she so swiftly working her self under Ground and making her way so fast in the Earth as they that behold it cannot but admire it Her Legs therefore are short that she need dig no more than will serve the mere thickness of her Body And her fore-Feet are broad that she may scoup away much Earth at a time And she has little or no Tail because she courses it not on the Ground like a Rat or Mouse but lives under the Earth and is fain to dig her self a dwelling there and she making her way through so thick an Element which will not easily yield as the Water and Air do it had been dangerous to draw so long a train behind her for her Enemy might fall upon her rear and fetch her out before she had perfected and got full Possession of her Works Which being so what more palpable Argument of Providence than She Another instance in Quadrupeds might be the Tamandua or Ant Bear described by Marcgrave and Piso who saith of them that they are Night walkers and seek their Food by Night Being kept tame they are fed with Flesh but it must be minced small because they have not only a slender and sharp Head and Snout but also a narrow and toothless Mouth their Tongue is like a great Lute string as big as a Goose-quill round and in the greater Kind for there are two Species more than two foot long and therefore lies doubled in a Channel between the lower parts of the Cheeks This when hungry they thrust forth being well moistened and lay upon the Trunks of Trees and when it is covered with Ants suddenly draw it back into their Mouths if the Ants lie so deep that they cannot come at them they dig up the Earth with their long and strong Claws wherewith for that purpose their fore-Feet are armed So we see how their Parts are fitted for this kind of Diet and no other for the catching of it and for the eating of it it requiring no comminution by the Teeth as appears also in the Chamaeleon which is another Quadruped that imitates the Tamandua in this property of darting out the Tongue to a great length with wonderful celerity and for the same purpose too of catching of Insects Besides these Quadrupeds there are a whole Genus of Birds called Pici Martii or Woodpeckers that in like manner have a Tongue which they can shoot forth to a very great length ending in a sharp stiff bony tip dented on each side and at pleasure thrust it deep into the holes clefts and crannies of Trees to stab and draw out Cossi or any other Insects lurking there as also into Anthills to
should intend his own Glory For he being Infinite in all Excellencies and Perfections and Independent upon any other Being nothing can be said or thought of him too great and which he may not justly challenge as his Due nay He cannot think too highly of Himself his other Attributes being adequate to his Understanding so that though his Understanding be Infinite yet he understands no more than his Power can effect because that is Infinite also And therefore it is fit and reasonable that he should own and accept the Creatures Acknowledgments and Celebrations of those Vertues and Perfections which he hath not received of any other but possesseth Eternally and Originally of himself And indeed with reverence be it spoken what else can we imagine the ever Blessed Deity to delight and take complacency in for ever but his own Infinite Excellencies and Perfections and the Manifestations and Effects of them the Works of the Creation and the Sacrifices of Praise and Thanks offered up by such of his Creatures as are capable of considering those Works and discerning the Traces and Footsteps of his Power and Wisdom appearing in the Formation of them and moreover whose bounden Duty it is so to do The reason why Man ought not to admire himself or seek his own Glory is because he is a dependent Creature and hath nothing but what he hath received and not only dependent but imperfect yea weak and impotent And yet do I not take Humility in man to consist in disowning or denying any Gift or Ability that is in him but in a just valuation of such Gifts and Endowments yet rather thinking too meanly than too highly of them because Humane Nature is so apt to err in running into the other extreme to flatter it self and to accept those Praises that are not due to it Pride being an elation of Spirit upon false Grounds or a desire or acceptance of undue Honour Otherwise I do not see why a man may not admit and accept the Testimonies of others concerning any Perfection Accomplishment or Skill that he is really possessed of yet can he not think himself to deserve any great Praise or Honour for it because both the Power and the Habit are the Gift of God And considering that one Vertue is counter-balanced by many Vices and one Skill or Perfection with much Ignorance and Infirmity I proceed now to select some particular Pieces of the Creation and to consider them more distinctly They shall be only two 1. The whole Body of the Earth 2. The Body of Man First the Body of the Earth and therein I shall take notice of 1. It s Figure 2. It s Motion 3. The Constitution of its parts By Earth I here understand not the Dry Land or the Earth contradistinguished to Water or the Earth considered as an Element but the whole Terraqueous Globe composed of Earth and Water 1. For the Figure I could easily demonstrate it to be Spherical That the Water which by reason of its fluidity should one would think compose it self to a Level yet doth not so but hath a Gibbose Superficies may to the Eye be demonstrated upon the Sea For when two Ships sailing contrary ways lose the sight one of another first the Keel and Hull disappear afterward the Sails and if when upon Deck you have perfectly lost sight of all you get up the top of the Main-mast you may descry it again Now what should take away the sight of these Ships from each other but the gibbosity of the interjacent Water The roundness of the Earth from North to South is demonstrated from the appearance of Northern Stars above the Horizon and loss of the Southern to them that travel Northward and on the contrary the loss of the Northern and appearance of the Southern to them that travel Southward For were the Earth a Plain we should see exactly the fame Stars wherever we were placed on that Plain The roundness from East to West is demonstrated from Eclipses of either of the great Luminaries For why the same Eclipse suppose of the Sun which is seen to them that live more Easterly when the Sun is elevated 6 degrees above the Horizon should be seen to them that live one degree more Westernly when the Sun is but five degrees above the Horizon and so lower and lower proportionably to them that live more and more Westernly till at last it appear not at all no accompt can be given but the globosity of the Earth For were the Earth a perfect Plain the Sun would appear Eclipsed to all that live upon that Plain if not exactly in the same Elevation yet pretty near it but to be sure it would never appear to some the Sun being Elevated high above the Horizon and not at all to others It being clear then that the Figure of the Earth is Spherical let us consider the Conveniences of this Figure 1. No Figure is so capacious as this and consequently whose parts are so well compacted and united and lie so near one to another for mutual strength Now the Earth which is the basis of all Animals and as some think of the whole Creation ought to be firm and stable and solid and as much as is possible secured from all Ruins and Concussions 2. This Figure is most consonant and agreeable to the natural Natus or tendency of all heavy Bodies Now the Earth being such a one and all its parts having an equal propension or connivency to the Center they must needs be in greatest rest and most immoveable when they are all equidistant from it Whereas were it an Angular Body all the Angles would be vast and steep Mountains bearing a considerable proportion to the whole bulk and therefore those parts being extremely more remote from the Center than those about the middle of the Plains would consequently press very strongly thitherward and unless the Earth were made of Adamant or Marble in time the other parts would give way till all were levelled 3. Were the Earth an angular Body and not round all the whole Earth would be nothing else but vast Mountains and so incommodious for Animals to live upon For the middle point of every side would be nearer the Center than any other and consequently from that point which way soever one travelled would be up Hill the tendency of all heavy Bodies being perpendicularly to the Center Besides how much this would obstruct Commerce is easily seen For not only the declivity of all places would render them very difficult to be travelled over but likewise the midst of every side being lowest and nearest the Center if there were any Rain or any Rivers must needs be filled with a Lake of Water there being no way to discharge it and possibly the Water would rise so high as to overflow the whole Latus But surely there would be much more danger of the Inundation of whole Countries than now there is all the Waters falling upon the Earth by reason of its
would make choice of Not of a perpendicular Posture For so both the pleasant Variety and great Convenience of Summer and Winter Spring and Autumn would be lost and for want of Accession of the Sun these Parts of the Earth which now bring forth Fruits and are Habitable would be in an incapacity of ever bringing forth any and consequently could entertain no Inhabitants and those Parts that the full heat of the Sun could reach he plying them always alike without any annual Recession or Intermission would at last grow tired or exhausted or be wholly dried up and want moisture the Sun dissipating and casting off the Clouds Northwards and Southwards Besides we observe that an orderly vicissitude of things doth much more gratifie the contemplative Property in Man And now in the second place neither would Reason make choice of a coincident Position For if the Axis thus lay in a plain that goeth through the Center of the Sun the Ecliptick would like a Colure or one of the Meridians pass through the Poles of the Earth which would put the Inhabitants of the World into a pitiful condition For they that escape best in the Temperate Zone would be accloyed with long Nights very tedious no less than Forty Days and those that now never have their Night above Twenty Four Hours as Friesland Island the furthest parts of Russia and Norway would be deprived of the Sun above a Hundred and Thirty Days together Our selves in England and the rest of the same Clime would be closed up in darkness no less than a Hundred or Eighty Days and so proportionably of the rest both in and out of the Temperate Zones And as for Summer and Winter though those Vicissitudes would be yet it could not but cause raging Diseases to have the Sun stay so long describing his little Circles so near the Poles and lying so hot on the Inhabitants that had been in so long extremity of Darkness and Cold before It remains therefore that the posture of the Axis of the Earth be inclining not perpendicular nor coincident to the fore-mentioned Plain And verily it is not only inclining but in so fit a proportion that there can be no fitter imagined to make it to the utmost capacity as well pleasant as habitable For though the course of the Sun be curbed between the Tropicks yet are not those parts directly subject to his perpendicular Beams either Unhabitable or extremely Hot as the Ancients fansied By the Testimony of Travellers and particularly Sir Walter Ralegh the parts under and near the Line being as Fruitful and Pleasant and fit to make a Paradise of as any in the World And that they are as suitable to the nature of Man and as convenient to live in appears from the Longaevity of the Natives as for Instance the Aethiopes called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but especially the Brasilians in America the ordinary Term of whose Life is a Hundred Years as is set down by Piso a Learned Physitian of Holland who travelled thither on purpose to augment natural Knowledge but especially what related to Physick And reasonable it is that this should be so for neither doth the Sun lie long upon them their Day being but Twelve Hours and their Night as long to cool and refresh them and besides they have frequent Showers and constant Breezes or fresh Gales of Wind from the East Seeing then this best posture which our Reason could make choice of we see really Established in Nature we cannot but acknowledge it to be the issue of Wisdom Counsel and Providence Moreover a further Argument to evince this is That though it cannot but be acknowledged that if the Axis of the Earth were perpendicular to the plain of the Ecliptick her motion would be more easie and natural yet notwithstanding for the Conveniencies forementioned we see it is made in an inclining posture If any man shall object and say It would be more convenient for the Inhabitants of the Earth if the Tropicks stood at a greater distance and the Sun moved further Northward and Southward for so the North and South parts would be relieved and not exposed to so extreme cold and thereby rendred unhabitable as now they are To this I answer That this would be more inconvenient to the Inhabitants of the Earth in general and yet would afford the North and South parts but little more comfort For then as much as the distances between the Tropicks were enlarg'd so much would also the Artick and Antartick Circles be enlarg'd too and so we here in England and so on Northerly should not have that grateful and useful Succession of Day and Night but proportionably to the Suns coming towards us so would our days be of more than Twenty Four Hours length and according to his recess in Winter our Nights proportionable which how great an inconvenience it would be is easily seen Whereas now the whole Latitude of Earth which hath at any time above Twenty Four Hours Day and Twenty Four Hours Night is little and inconsiderable in comparison of the whole bulk as lying near the Poles And yet neither is that part altogether unuseful for in the Waters there live Fishes which otherwhere are not obvious so we know the chief Whale-fishing is in Greenland And on the Land Bears and Foxes and Deer in the most Northerly Country that was ever yet touched and doubtless if we shall discover further to the very North-pole we shall find all that Tract not to be vain useless or unoccupied Thirdly The Third and Last thing I proposed was the Constitution and Consistency of the parts of the Earth And first Admirable it is that the Waters should be gathered together into such great Conceptacula and the dry Land appear and though we had not been assured thereof by Divine Revelation we could not in Reason but have thought such a Division and Separation to have been the Work of Omnipotency and Infinite Wisdom and Goodness For in this condition the Water nourishes and maintains innumerable Multitudes of various kinds of Fishes and the dry Land supports and feeds as great varieties of Plants and Animals which have there firm Footing and Habitation Whereas had all been Earth all the species of Fishes had been lost and all those Commodities which the Water affords us or all Water there had been no living for Plants or Terrestrial Animals or Man himself and all the Beauty Glory and Variety of this inferiour World had been gone nothing being to be seen but one uniform dark Body of Water or had all been mixt and made up of Water and Earth into one Body of Mud or Mire as one would think should be most natural for why such a Separation as at present we find should be made no account can be given but Providence I say had all this Globe been Mire or Mud then could there have been no possibility for any Animals at all to have lived excepting some few and those
very dull and inferiour ones too That therefore the Earth should be made thus and not only so but with so great variety of parts as Mountains Plains Vallies Sand Gravel Lime Stone Clay Marble Argilla c. which are so delectable and pleasant and likewise so useful and convenient for the breeding and living of various Plants and Animals some affecting Mountains some Plains some Vallies some Watery Places some Shade some Sun some Clay some Sand some Gravel c. That the Earth should be so figured as to have Mountains in the Mid-land parts abounding with Springs of Water pouring down Streams and Rivers for the necessities and conveniencies of the Inhabitants of the lower Countries and that the Levels and Plains should be formed with so easie a declivity as to cast off the Water and yet not render Travelling or Tillage very Difficult or Laborious These things I say must needs be the result of Counsel Wisdom and Design Especially when as I said before not that way which seems more facile and obvious to Chance is chosen but that which is more difficult and hard to be traced when it is most convenient and proper for those nobler Ends and Designs which were intended by its Wise Creator and Governor Add to all this that the whole dry Land is for the most part covered over with a lovely Carpet of green Grass and other Herbs of a colour not only most grateful and agreeable but most useful and salutary to the Eye and this also decked and adorned with great variety of Flowers of beautiful Colours and Figures and of most pleasant and fragrant Odours for the refreshment of our Spirits and our innocent Delight A Second particular I have made choice of more exactly to survey and consider is the Body of Man wherein I shall endeavour to discover something of the Wisdom and Goodness of God First By making some general Observations concerning the Body Secondly By running over and discoursing upon its principal Parts and Members 1. Then in general I say the Wisdom and Goodness of God appears in the erect Posture of the Body of Man which is a Priviledge and Advantage given to Man above other Animals But though this be so yet I would not have you think that all the Particulars I shall mention are proper only to the Body of Man divers of them agreeing to many other Creatures It is not my Business to consider only the Prerogatives of Man above other Animals but the Endowments and Perfections which Nature hath conferred on his Body though common to them with him Of this erection of the Body of Man the Ancients have taken Notice as a particular Gift and Favour of God Ovid. Metam 1. Pronáque cùm spectent Animalia caetera terrā Os hominum sublime dedit coelúmque tueri Jussit erectos ad Sydera tollere vultus And before him Tully in his Second Book De Nat. Deorum Ad hanc providentiam naturae tam diligentem támque solertem adjungi multa possunt è quibus intelligatur quantae res hominibus à Deo quámque eximiae tributae sunt qui primùm eos humo excitatos celsos erectos constituit ut Deorum cognitionem coelum intuentes capere possent Sunt enim è terra homines non ut incolae atque habitatores sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque coelestium quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet Man being the only Creature in this sublunary World made to contemplate Heaven it was convenient that he should have such a Figure or Situs of the parts of his Body that he might conveniently look upwards But to say the Truth in this respect of contemplating the Heavens or looking upwards I do not see what advantage a man hath by this erection above other Animals the Faces of most of them being more supine than ours which are only perpendicular to the Horizon whereas some of theirs stand reclining But yet two or three other Advantages we have of this Erection which I shall here mention First It is more commodious for the sustaining of the Head which being full of Brains and very heavy the Brain in Man being far larger in proportion to the Bulk of his Body than in any other Animal would have been very painful and wearisome to carry if the Neck had lain parallel or inclining to the Horizon Secondly This Figure is most convenient for Prospect and looking about one A man may see further before him which is no small advantage for avoiding Dangers and discovering whatever he searches after Thirdly The conveniency of this Site of our Bodies will more clearly appear if we consider what a pitiful condition we had been in if we had been constantly necessitated to stand and walk upon all Four Man being by the make of his Body of all Quadrupeds for now I must compare him with them the most unfit for that kind of incessus as I shall shew anon And besides that we should have wanted at least in a great measure the use of our Hand that unvaluable Instrument without which we had wanted most of those advantages we enjoy as reasonable Creatures as I shall more particularly demonstrate afterwards But it may be perchance objected by some that Nature did not intend this Erection of the Body but that it is superinduced and artificial for that Children at first creep on all Four according to that of the Poet. Mox Quadrupes ritúque tulit sua membra ferarum Ovid. To which I answer that there is so great an inequality in the length of our Legs and Arms as would make it extremely inconvenient if not impossible for us to walk upon all Four and set us almost upon our Heads and therefore we see that Children do not creep upon their Hands and Feet but upon their Hands and Knees so that it is plain that Nature intended us to walk as we do and not upon all Four 2. I argue from the Situs or position of our Faces for had we been to walk upon all Four we had been the most prone of all Animals our Faces being parallel to the Horizon and looking directly downwards 3. The greatness and strength of the Muscles of the Thighs and Legs above those of the Arms is a clear indication that they were by Nature intended for a more difficult and laborious Action even the moving and transferring the whole Body and that Motion to be sometimes continued for a great while together As for that Argument taken from the contrary flexure of the Joynts of our Arms and Legs to that of Quadrupeds as that our Knees bend forward whereas the same Joynt of their hind Legs bends backward and that our Arms bend backward whereas the Knees of their fore Legs bend forward Although the Observation be as old as Aristotle because I think there is a mistake in it in not comparing the same Joynts for the first or uppermost Joynt in a Quadrupeds hind Legs
no use of respiration by the Lungs the Blood doth not all I may say not the greatest part of it flow through them but there are two Passages or Channels contrived one called the foramen ovale by which part of the Blood brought by the vena cava passeth immediately into the left Ventricle of the Heart without entring the right at all the other is a large arterial Channel passing from the pulmonary Artery immediately into the Aorta or great Artery which likewise derives part of the Blood thither without running at all into the Lungs These two are closed up soon after the Child is born when it breaths no more as I may so say by the Placenta uterina but respiration by the Lungs is needful for it It is here to be noted that though the Lungs be formed so soon as the other Parts yet during the abode of the foetus in the Womb they lie by as useless In like manner I have observed that in ruminating Creatures the three formost Stomachs not only during the continuance of the Young in the Womb but so long as it is fed with Milk are unemployed and useless the Milk passing immediately into the fourth Another Observation I shall add concerning Generation which is of some moment because it takes away some concessions of Naturalists that give countenance to the Atheists fictitious and ridiculous Account of the first production of Mankind and other Animals viz. that all sorts of Insects yea and some Quadrupeds too as Frogs and Mice are produced Spontaneously My Observation and Affirmation is that there is no such thing in Nature as Aequivocal or Spontaneous Generation but that all Animals as well small as great not excluding the vilest and most contemptible Insect are generated by Animal Parents of the same Species with themselves that noble Italian Vertuoso Francesco Redi having experimented that no putrified Flesh which one would think were the most likely of any thing will of itself if all Insects be carefully kept from it produce any The same Experiment I remember Doctor Wilkins late Bishop of Chester told me had been made by some of the Royal Society No instance against this Opinion doth so much puzzle me as Worms bred in the Intestines of Man and other Animals But seeing the round Worms do manifestly generate and probably the other kinds too it 's likely they come originally from Seed which how it was brought into the Guts may afterwards possibly be discovered Moreover I am inclinable to believe that all Plants too that themselves produce Seed which are all but some very imperfect ones which scarce deserve the name of Plants come of Seeds themselves For that great Naturalist Malpighius to make experiment whether Earth would of its self put forth Plants took some purposely digged out of a deep Place and put it into a Glass Vessel the top whereof he covered with Silk many times doubled and strained over it which would admit the Water and Air to pass through but exclude the least Seed that might be wafted by the Wind the event was that no Plant at all sprang up in it nor need we wonder how in a Ditch Bank or Grass-Plat newly dig'd or in the Fenbanks in the Isle of Ely Mustard should abundantly spring up where in the Memory of Man none had been known to grow for it might come of Seed which had lain there more than a Mans Age. Some of the Ancients mentioning some Seeds that retain their fecundity Forty Years As for the Mustard that sprung up in the Isle of Ely though there never had been any in that Country yet might it have been brought down in the Channels by the Floods and so being thrown up the Banks together with the Earth might germinate and grow there From this Discourse concerning the Body of Man I shall make Three Practical Inferences First Let us give thanks to Almighty God for the Perfection and Integrity of our Bodies It would not be amiss to put it into the Eucharistical parr of our daily Devotions We praise thee O God for the due Number Shape and Use of our Limbs and Senses and in general of all the Parts of our Bodies we bless thee for the sound and healthful Constitution of them It is thou that hast made us and not we our selves in thy Book were all our Members written The Mother that bears the Child in her Womb is not conscious to any thing that is done there she understands no more how the Infant is formed than itself doth But if God hath bestowed upon us any peculiar Gift or Endowment wherein we excel others as Strength or Beauty or Activity we ought to give him special thanks for it but not to think the better of our selves therefore or despise them that want it Now because these Bodily Perfections being common Blessings we are apt not at all to consider them or not to set a just value on them and because the worth of things is best discerned by their want it would be useful sometimes to imagine or suppose our selves by some accident to be depriv'd of one of our Limbs or Senses as a Hand or a Foot or an Eye for then we cannot but be sensible that we should be in worse condition than now we are and that we should soon find a difference between two Hands and one Hand two Eyes and one Eye and that two excel one as much in worth as they do in number and yet if we could spare the use of the lost part the deformity and unsightlyness of such a defect in the Body would alone be very grievous to us Again which is less suppose we only that our Bodies want of their just magnitude or that they or any of our Members are crooked or distorted or disproportionate to the rest either in excess or defect nay which is least of all that the due motion of any one part be perverted as but of the Eyes in squinting the Eye-lids in twinkling the Tongue in stammering these things are such Blemishes and Offences to us by making us Gazing-stocks to others and Objects of their Scorn and Derision that we could be content to part with a good part of our Estates to repair such defects or heal such Infirmities These things considered and duly weighed would surely be a great and effectual motive to excite in us Gratitude for this Integrity of our Bodies and to esteem it no small blessing I say a blessing and favor of God to us for some there be that want it and why might not we have been of that number God was no way obliged to bestow it upon us And as we are to give thanks for the Integrity of our Body so are we likewise for the Health of it and the sound Temper and Constitution of all its Parts and Humors Health being the principal blessing of this Life without which we cannot enjoy or take comfort in any thing besides Neither are we to give thanks alone
declivity every way easily descending down to the common Receptacle the Sea And these Lakes of Water being far distant one from another there could be no Commerce between far remote Countries but by Land 4. A Spherical Figure is most commodious for dinetical motion or revolution upon its own Axis For in that neither oan the Medium at all resist the motion of the Body because it stands not in its way no part coming into any space but what the precedent left neither doth one part of the Superficies move faster than another whereas were it Angular the parts about the Angles would find strong resistance from the Air and those parts also about the Angles would move much faster than those about the middle of the Plains being remoter from the center than they It remains therefore that this Figure is the most commodious for Motion Here I cannot but take notice of the folly and stupidity of the Epicureans who fancied the Earth to be flat and contiguous to the Heavens on all sides and that it descended a great way with long Roots and that the Sun was new made every Morning and not much bigger than it seems to the Eye and of a flat Figure and many other such gross Absurdities as Children among us would be ashamed of Secondly I come now to speak of the Motion of the Earth That the Earth speaking according to Philosophical accurateness doth move both upon its own Poles and in the Ecliptick is now the received Opinion of the most learned and skilful Mathematicians To prove the diurnal Motion of it upon its Poles I need produce no other Arguments than First The vast disproportion in respect of Magnitude that is between the Earth and the Heavens and the great unlikelyhood that such an infinite number of vast Bodies should move about so inconsiderable a spot as the Earth which in comparison with them by the concurrent suffrages of Mathematicians of both perswasions is a mere point that is next to nothing Secondly The immense and incredible Celerity of the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies in the ancient Hypothesis of its Annual Motion in the Ecliptick the Stations and Retrogradations of the superior Planets are a convincing Argument there being a clear and facile Account thereof to be given from the mere Motion of the Earth in the Ecliptick whereas in the Old Hypothesis no account can be given thereof but by the unreasonable Fiction of Epicycles and contrary Motions add hereto the great unlikelyhood of such an enormous Epicycle as Venus must describe about the Sun not under the Sun as the old Astronomers fancied So that whosoever doth clearly understand both Hypotheses cannot I perswade my self adhere to the Old and reject the New without doing some violence to his Faculties Against this Opinion lie two Objections First That it is contrary to Sense and the common Opinion and Belief of Mankind Secondly That it seemeth contrary to some Expressions in Scripture To the first I answer that our Senses are sometimes mistaken and what appears to them is not always in reality so as it appears For Example The Sun or Moon appear no bigger at most than a Cart-wheel and of a flat figure The Earth seems to be plain the Heavens to cover it like a Canopy and to be contiguous to it round about A Fire-brand nimbly moved round appears like a circle of Fire and to give a parallel Instance a Boat lying still at Anchor in a River to him that sails or rows by it seems to move apace and when the Clouds pass nimbly under the Moon the Moon it self seems to move the contrary way And there have been whole Books written in Confutation of vulgar Errours Secondly As to the Scripture when speaking of these things it accommodates it self to the common and received Opinions and employs the usual Phrases and Forms of Speech as all Wise Men also do though in strictness they be of a different or contrary Opinion without intention of delivering any thing Doctrinally concerning these Points or confuting the contrary And yet by those that maintain the Opinion of the Earths motion there might a convenient Interpretation be given of such places as seem to contradict it Howbeit because some pious Persons may be offended at such an Opinion as savouring of Novelty thinking it inconsistent with Divine Revelation I shall not positively assert it only propose it as an Hypothesis not altogether improbable Supposing then that the Earth doth move both upon its own Poles and in the Ecliptick about the Sun I shall shew how admirably its Situation and Motion are contrived for the conveniency of Man and other Animals which I cannot do more fully and clearly than Dr. More hath already done in his Antidote against Atheism whose Words therefore I shall borrow First Speaking of the Parallelism of the Axis of the Earth he saith I demand whether it be better to have the Axis of the Earth steady and perpetually parallel to it self or to have it carelesly tumble this way and that way as it happens or at least very variously and intricately And you cannot but answer me it is better to have it steady and parallel For in this lies the necessary Foundation of the Art of Navigation and Dialling For that steady Stream of Particles which is supposed to keep the Axis of the Earth parallel to its self affords the Mariner both his Cynosura and his Compass The Load-stone and the Load-star depend both upon this The Load-stone as I could demonstrate were it not too great a digression and the Load-star because that which keeps the Axis parallel to its self makes each of the Poles constantly respect such a point in the Heavens as for Example the North-pole to point almost directly to that which we call the Pole-star And besides Dialling could not be at all without this steadiness of the Axis But both these Arts are pleasant and one especially of mighty Importance to Mankind For thus there is an orderly measuring of our time for Affairs at home and an opportunity of Traffick abroad with the most remote Nations of the World and so there is a mutual Supply of the several Commodities of all Countries besides the enlarging our Understandings by so ample Experience we get both of men and things Wherefore if we were rationally to consult whether the Axis of the Earth were better be held steady and parallel to it self or left at random we would conclude it ought to be steady and so we find it de Facto though the Earth move floating in the liquid Heavens So that appealing to our own Faculties we are to affirm that the constant Direction of the Axis of the Earth was Established by a principle of Wisdom and Counsel Again there being several postures of this steady Direction of the Axis of the Earth viz. Either perpendicular to a Plain going through the Center of the Sun or coincident or inclining I demand which of all these Reason and Knowledge