supplied with Air from thence are by and by convulsed and shortly relaxed and deprived of Motion the rest that were untoucht still retaining it Nay more than all this Plants themselves have a kind of respiration being furnished with plenty of Vessels for the derivation of Air to all their parts as hath been observed nay first discovered by that great and curious Naturalist Malpighius Another use of the Air is to sustain the flight of Birds and Insects Moreover by its gravity it raises the Water in Pumps Siphons and other Engines and performs all those feats which former Philosophers through Ignorance of the Efficient Cause attributed to a Final namely Natures abhorrence of a Vacuity or empty space The Elastick or expansive faculty of the Air whereby it dilates itself when compressed indeed this lower Region of it by reason of the weight of the superincumbent is always in a compressed State hath been made use of in the common Weather-glasses in Wind guns and in several ingenious Water-works and doubtless hath a great Interest in many natural Effects and Operations Against what we have said of the necessity of the Air for the maintenance of the Vital Flame it may be objected That the Foetus in the Womb Lives its Heart Pulsses and its Blood Circulates and yet it draws in no Air neither hath the Air any Access to it To which I Answer That it doth receive Air so much as is sufficient for it in its present state from the maternal Blood by the Placenta uterina or the Cotyledones This Opinion generally propounded viz. That the Respiration of the Dam did serve the Foetus also or supply sufficient Air to it I have met with in Books but the explicit Notion of it I owe to my Learned and worthy Friend Dr. Edward Hulse which comparing with mine own Anatomical Observations I found so consonant to Reason and highly probable that I could not but yield a firm Assent to it I say then That the chief Use of the Circulation of the Blood through the Cotyledones of a Calf in the Womb which I have often dissected and by Analogy through the Placenta uterina in an Humane Foetus seems to be the Impregnation of the Blood with Air for the feeding of the vital Flame For if it were only for Nutrition what need of two such great Arteries to convey the Blood thither It would one might rationally think be more likely that as in the Abdomen of every Animal so here there should have been some lacteal Veins formed beginning from the Placenta or Cotyledons which concurring in one common ductus should at last empty themselves into the vena cava Secondly I have observed in a Calf the umbilical Vessels to terminate in certain Bodies divided into a multitude of carneous papillae as I may so call them which are received into so many Sockets of the Cotyledons growing on the Womb which carneous papillae may without force or laceration be drawn out of those Sockets Now these papillae do well resemble the Aristae or radii of a Fishes Gills and very probably have the same use to take in the Air. So that the maternal Blood which flows to the Cotyledons and encircles these papillae communicates by them to the Blood of the Foetus the Air wherewith it self is impregnate as the Water flowing about the carneous radii of the Fishes Gills doth the Air that is lodged therein to them Thirdly That the maternal Blood flows most copiously to the Placenta uterina in Women is manifest from the great Hemorrhagy that succeeds the separation thereof at the Birth Fourthly After the Stomach and Intestines are formed the foetus seems to take in its whole nourishment by the Mouth there being always found in the Stomach of a Calf plenty of the liquor contained in the Amnios wherein he swims and faeces in his intestines and abundance of urine in the Allantoides So that the foetus in the Womb doth live as it were the life of a Fish Lastly Why else should there be such an instant necessity of Respiration so soon as ever the foetus is fallen off from the Womb This way we may give a facile and very probable account of it to wit because receiving no more Communications of Air from its Dam or Mother it must needs have a speedy supply from without or else extinguish and die for want of it Being not able to live longer without Air at its first Birth than it can do afterward And here methinks appears a necessity of bringing in the agency of some Superintendent intelligent Being be it a Plastick Nature or what you will For what else should put the Diaphragm and all the Muscles serving to Respiration in motion all of a sudden so soon as ever the foetus is brought forth Why could they not have rested as well as they did in the Womb What aileth them that they must needs bestir themselves to get in Air to maintain the Creatures life Why could they not patiently suffer it to die That the Air of it self could not rush in is clear for that on the contrary there is required a great force to remove the incumbent Air and make room for the external to enter You will say the Spirits do at this time flow to the Organs of Respiration the Diaphragm and other Muscles which concur to that action and move them But what rouses the Spirits which were quiescent during the continuance of the foetus in the Womb Here is no appearing impellent but the external Air the Body suffering no change but of place out of its close and warm Prison into the open and cool Air. But how or why that should have such influence upon the Spirits as to drive them into those Muscles electively I am not subtil enough to discern Thirdly Water is one part and that not the least of our Sustenance and that affords the greatest share of Matter in all Productions containing in it the Principles or minute component particles of all Bodies To speak nothing of those inferiour Uses of Washing and Bathing Dressing and preparing of Victuals But if we shall consider the great Conceptacula and Congregations of Water and the distribution of it all over the dry Land in Springs and Rivers there will occur abundant Arguments of Wisdom and Understanding The Sea what infinite variety of Fishes doth it nourish Psalm 104. 25. in the verse next to my Text. The earth is full of thy riches So is this great and wide Sea wherein are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts c. How doth it exactly compose itself to a level or equal Superficies and with the Earth make up one spherical Roundness How doth it constantly observe its Ebbs and Flows its Spring and Nepe-tides and still retain its saltness so convenient for the maintenance of its Inhabitants serving also the uses of Man for Navigation and the convenience of Carriage That it should be defined by Shores 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-Sea-water The reason why these Fishes delight to frequent chiefly the northern-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
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
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
not spend time to relate Should this be true that Beasts were Automata or Machines they could have no sense or perception of Pleasure or Pain and consequently no Cruelty could be exercised towards them which is contrary to the doleful significations they make when beaten or tormented and contrary to the common sense of Mankind all men naturally pitying them as apprehending them to have such a sense and feeling of Pain and Misery as themselves have whereas no man is troubled to see a Plant torn or cut or stampt or mangled how you please Besides having the same Members and Organs of Sense as we have it is very probable they have the same Sensations and Perceptions with us To this Des Cartes answers or indeed saith he hath nothing to answer but that if they think as well as we they have an immortal Soul as well as we Which is not at all likely because there is no reason to believe it of some Animals without believing it of all whereas there are many too too imperfect to believe it of them such as are Oysters and Sponges and the like To which I answer that there is no Necessity they should be immortal because it is possible they may be destroyed or annihilated But I shall not wade further into this Controversie because it is beside my Scope and there hath been as much written of it already as I have to say by Dr. More Dr. Cudworth Des Cartes Dr. Willis and others Pro and Con. Of the visible Works of God and their Division I come now to take a view of the Works of the Creation and to observe something of the Wisdom of God discernable in the Formation of them in their Order and Harmony and in their Ends and Uses And first I shall run them over slightly remarking chiefly what is obvious and exposed to the Eyes and notice of the more careless and incurious Observer Secondly I shall select one or two particular Pieces and take a more exact survey of them though even in these more will escape our notice than can be discovered by the most diligent Scrutiny For our Eyes and Senses however armed or assisted are too gross to discern the curiosity of the Workmanship of Nature or those minute Parts by which it acts and of which Bodies are composed and our Understanding too dark and infirm to discover and comprehend all the Ends and Uses to which the infinitely wise Creator did design them But before I proceed being put in mind thereof by the mention of the assistance of our Eyes I cannot omit one general Observation concerning the curiosity of the Works of Nature in comparison of the Works of Art which I shall propose in the late Bishop of Chesters Words The Observations which have been made in these latter times by the help of the Microscrope since we had the use and improvement of it discover a vast difference between Natural and Artificial Things Whatever is natural beheld through that appears exquisitely formed and adorned with all imaginable Elegancy and Beauty There are such inimitable gildings in the smallest Seeds of Plants but especially in the parts of Animals in the Head or Eye of a small Fly such Accuracy Order and Symmetry in the frame of the most minute Creatures a Louse for Example or a Mite as no Man were able to conceive without seeing of them Whereas the most curious Works of Art the sharpest and finest Needle doth appear as a blunt rough Bar of Iron coming from the Furnace or the Forge the most accurate engravings or embossments seem such rude bungling and deformed Work as if they had been done with a Mattock or a Trowel so vast a difference is there betwixt the Skill of Nature and the Rudeness and Imperfection of Art I might add that the Works of Nature the better Lights and Glasses you use the more cleaver and exactly formed they appear whereas the effects of human Art the more curiously they are viewed and examined the more of Deformity they discover This being premised for our more clear and distinct proceeding in our cursory View of the Creation I shall rank the parts of this material and visible World under several Heads Bodies are either inanimate or animate Inanimate Bodies are either celestial or terrestrial Celestial as the Sun Moon and Stars Terrestrial are either simple as the four Elements Fire Water Earth and Air or mixt either imperfectly as the Meteors or more perfectly as Stones Metals Minerals and the like Animate Bodies are either such as are endued with a Vegetative Soul as Plants or a Sensitive Soul as the Bodies of Animals Birds Beasts Fishes and Insects or a Rational Soul as the Body of Man and the Vehicles of Angels if any such there be I make use of this Division to comply with the common and received Opinion and for easier Comprehension and Memory though I do not think it agreeable to Philosophick Verity and Accuracy but do rather incline to the Atomick Hypothesis For these Bodies we call Elements are not the only ingredients of mixt Bodies neither are they absolutely simple themselves as they do exist in the World the sea-Sea-water containing a copious Salt manifest to Sense and both Sea and Fresh-water sufficing to nourish many Species of Fish and consequently containing the various parts of which their Bodies are compounded And I believe there are many Species of Bodies which the Peripateticks call Mixt which are as simple as the Elements themselves as Metals Salts and some sorts of Stones I should therefore with Dr. Grew and others rather attribute the various Species of inanimate Bodies to the divers figures of the minute Particles of which they are made up And the reason why there is a set and constant number of them in the World none destroyed nor any new ones produced I take to be because the sum of the figures of those minute Bodies into which matter was at first divided is determinate and fixt 2. Because those minute parts are indivisible not absolutely but by any natural force so that there neither is nor can be more or fewer of them For were they divisible into small and diversly figured parts by Fire or any other natural Agent the Species of Nature must be confounded some might be lost and destroyed but new ones would certainly be produced unless we could suppose these new diminutive Particles should again assemble and marshal themselves into corpuscles of such figures as they compounded before which I see no possibility for them to do without some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to direct them Not that I think these inanimate Bodies to consist wholly of one sort of Atoms but that their Bulk consists mainly or chiefly of one sort But whereas it may be objected that Metals which of all others seem to be most simple may be transmuted one into another and so the Species doth not depend upon the being compounded of Atoms of one figure I answer I am not fully
strike and fetch out the Ants and their Eggs. Moreover they have short but very strong Legs and their Toes stand two forwards two backwards which disposition as Aldrovandus well notes Nature or rather the Wisdom of the Creator hath granted to Woodpeckers because it is very convenient for the climbing of Trees to which also conduces the stiffness of the Feathers of their Tails and there bending downward whereby they are fitted to serve as a prop for them to lean upon and bear up their Bodies As for the Chamaeleon he imitates the Woodspite not only in the make motion and use of his Tongue for striking Ants Flies and other Insects but also in the site of his Toes whereby he is wonderfully qualified to run upon Trees which he doth with that swiftness that one would think he flew whereas upon the ground he walks very clumfily and ridiculously A full description of the outward and inward parts of this Animal may be seen at the end of Panarolus's Observat. It is to be noted that the Chamelion though he hath Teeth uses them not for chewing his Prey but swallows it immediately II. In Birds all the Members are most exactly fitted for the use of flying First The Muscles which serve to move the Wings are the greatest and strongest because much force is required to the agitation of them the underside of them is also made concave and the upper convex that they may be easily lifted up and more strongly beat the Air which by this means doth more resist the descent of their body downward Then the Trunk of their body doth somewhat resemble the Hull of a Ship the Head the Prow which is for the most part small that it may the more easily cut the Air and make way for their bodies the Train serves to steer govern and direct their flight and however it may be held erect in their standing or walking yet is directed to lye almost in the same plain with their Backs or rather a little inclining when they fly That the Train serves to sleer and direct their flight and turn their Bodies like the Rudder of a Ship is evident in the Kite who by a light turning of his Train moves his Body which way he pleases Iidem videntur artem gubernandi docuisse caudae flexibus in Caelo monstrante natura quod opus esset in profundo Plin. lib. 10. cap. 10. They seem to have taught men the Art of steering a Ship by the flexures of their Tails Nature shewing in the Air what was needful to be done in the Deep And it 's notable that Aristotle truly observes that whole-footed Birds and those that have long Legs have for the most part short Tails and therefore whilest they fly do not as others draw them up to their Bellies but stretch them at length backwards that they may serve to steer and guide them instead of Tails Neither doth the Tail serve only to direct and govern the flight but also partly to support the Body and keep it even wherefore when spread it lies parallel to the horizon and stands not perpendicular to it as Fishes do Hence Birds that have no Tails as some sorts of Colymbi or Douckers fly very inconveniently with their Bodies almost erect III. As for Fishes their Bodies are long and slender or else thin for the most part for their more easie swimming and dividing the water The wind-bladder wherewith most of them are furnished serves to poise their Bodies and keep them equiponderant to the water which else would sink to the bottom and lie grovelling there as hath by breaking the Bladder been experimentally found By the contraction and dilatation of this Bladder they are able to raise or sink themselves at pleasure and continue in what depth of water they list The Fins made of gristly spokes or rays connected by Membranes so that they may be contracted or extended like Womens fans and furnished with Muscles for motion serve partly for progression but chiefly to hold the Body upright which appears in that when they are cut off it wavers to and fro and so soon as the Fish dies the Belly turns upward The great strength by which Fishes dart themselves forward with incredible celerity like an Arrow out of a Bow lies in their Tails their Fins mean time lest they should retard their motion being held close to their Bodies And therefore almost the whole Musculous Flesh of the Body is bestowed upon the Tail and Back and serves for the vibration of the Tail the heaviness and corpulency of the Water requiring a great force to divide it I might here take notice of those Amphibious Creatures which we may call Aquatic Quadrupeds though one of them there is that hath but two Feet viz. the Manati or Sea-Cow the Beaver the Otter the Phoca or Sea Calf the Water-Rat and the Frog the Toes of whose Feet are joyned by membranes as in Water-Fowls for swimming and who have very small Ears and Ear-holes as the Cetaceous Fishes have for hearing in the Water To this head belongs the adapting of the parts that minister to Generation in the Sexes one to another and in Creatures that nourish their Young with Milk the Nipples of the Breast to the Mouth and Organs of Suction which he must needs be wilfully blind and void of sence that either discerns not or denies to be intended and made one for the other That the Nipples should be made spungy and with such perforations as to admit passage to the Milk when drawn otherwise to retain it and the Teeth of the Young either not spungy or so soft and tender as not to hurt the Nipples of the Dam are Effects and Arguments of Providence and Design To this head of the fitness of the parts of the Body to the Creatures Nature and manner of living belongs that observation of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such Birds as have crooked Beaks and Talons are all carnivorous and so of Quadrupeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnivora omnia All that have serrate Teeth are carnivorous This observation holds true concerning all European Birds but I know not but that Parrots may be an exception to it Yet it is remarkable that such Birds as are carnivorous have no Gizzard or musculous but a membranous Stomach that kind of food needing no such grinding or comminution as Seeds do but being torn into strings or small flakes by the Beak may be easily concocted by a membranous Stomach To the fitness of all the parts and members of Animals to their respective uses may also be referred another observation of the same Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Animals have even Feet not more on one side than another which if they had would either hinder their walking or hang by not only useless but also burthensome For though a Creature might make limping shift to hop suppose with three Feet yet nothing so conveniently or steddily to walk or run or indeed to stand So that
and Medicine their Trades and Manufactures their Houses and Buildings their Exercises and Sports c. In Physiology or Natural History by searching out their natural Rarities the productions both of Land and Water what Species of Animals Plants and Minerals of Fruits and Drogues are to be found there what Commodities for Bartering and Permutation whereby thou maist be enabled to make large Additions to Natural History to advance those other Sciences and to benefit and enrich thy Country by encrease of its Trade and Merchandise I have given thee Timber and Iron to build thee Huls of Ships tall Trees for Masts Flax and Hemp for Sails Cables and Cordage for Rigging I have armed thee with Courage and Hardiness to attempt the Seas and traverse the spacious Plains of that liquid Element I have assisted thee with a Compass to direct thy Course when thou shalt be out of all Ken of Land and have nothing in view but Sky and Water Go thither for the Purposes before mentioned and bring home what may be useful and beneficial to thy Country in general or thy Self in particular I perswade my self that the bountiful and gracious Author of Mans Being and Faculties and all things else delights in the Beauty of his Creation and is well pleased with the Industry of Man in adorning the Earth with beautiful Cities and Castles with pleasant Villages and Country Houses with regular Gardens and Orchards and Plantations of all sorts of Shrubs and Herbs and Fruits for Meat Medicine or moderate Delight with shady Woods and Groves and Walks set with rows of elegant Trees with Pastures clothed with Flocks and Valleys covered over with Corn and Meadows burthened with Grass and whatever else differenceth a civil and well cultivated Region from a barren and desolate Wilderness If a Country thus planted and adorned thus polished and civilized thus improved to the height by all manner of Culture for the Support and Sustenance and convenient Entertainment of innumerable multitudes of People be not to be preferred before a Barbarous and Inhospitable Scythia without Houses without Plantations without Corn-fields or Vineyards where the roving Hords of the savage and truculent Inhabitants transfer themselves from place to place in Wagons as they can find Pasture and Forage for their Cattle and live upon Milk and Flesh roasted in the Sun at the Pomels of their Saddles or a rude and unpolished America peopled with slothful and naked Indians instead of well-built Houses living in pitiful Hutts and Cabans made of Poles set end-ways then surely the brute Beasts Condition and manner of Living to which what we have mention'd doth nearly approach is to be esteemed better than Mans and Wit and Reason was in vain bestowed on him Lastly I might draw an Argument of the admirable Art and Skill of the Creator and Composer of them from the incredible Smalness of some of those natural and enlivened Machines the Bodies of Animals Any work of Art of extraordinary Fineness and Subtlety be it but a small Engine or Movement or a curious carved or turned work of Ivory or Metals such as those Cups turned of Ivory by Oswaldus Nerlinger of Suevia mentioned by Joan. Faber in his Expositions of Recchus his Mexican Animals which all had the perfect form of Cups and were Gilt with a Golden Border about the Brim of that wonderful smalness that Faber himself put a Thousand of them into an excavated Pepper corn and when he was weary of the work and yet had not filled the Vessel his Friend John Carolus Schad that shewed them him put in Four Hundred more Any such Work I say is beheld with much admiration and purchased at a great Rate and treasured up as a singular Rarity in the Museums and Cabinets of the curious and as such is one of the first things shew'd to Travellers and Strangers But what are these for their fineness and parvity for which alone and their Figure they are considerable to those minute Machines endued with life and motion I mean the Bodies of those Animalcula not long since discovered in Pepper water by Mr. Lewenhoek of Delft in Holland whose Observations were confirmed and improved by our Learned and Worthy Country-man Mr. Robert Hook who tells us that some of his Friends whose Testimonials he desired did affirm that they had seen 10000 others 30000 others 45000 little living Creatures in a quantity of Water no bigger than a grain of Millet And yet he made it his request to them that they would only justifie that they might be within compass half the number that they believed each of them saw in the Water From the greatest of these numbers he infers that there will be 8280000 of these living Creatures seen in one drop of Water which number saith he I can with Truth affirm I have discerned This proceeds he doth exceed belief But I do affirm if a larger Grain of Sand were broken into 8000000 of equal Parts one of these would not exceed the bigness of one of those Creatures Mr. Hook tells us that after he had discovered vast multitudes of those exceeding small Creatures which Mr. Lewenhoeck had described upon making use of other Lights and Glasses he not only magnified those he had discovered to a very great bigness but discovered many other sorts very much smaller than them he first saw and some of them so exceeding small that Millions of Millions might be contained in one drop of Water If Pliny considering such Insects as were known to him and those were none but what were visible to the naked Eye was moved to cry out That the artifice of Nature was no where more conspicuous than in these and again In his tam parvis atque tam nullis quae ratio quanta vis quà m inextricabilis perfectio and again Rerum natura nusquam magis quà m in minimis tota est Hist. Nat. l. 11. c. 1. What would he have said if he had seen Animals of so stupendous smalness as I have mentioned how would he have been rapt into an extasie of Astonishment and Admiration Again if considering the Body of a Gnat which by his own confession is none of the least of Insects he could make so many admiring Queries Where hath Nature disposed so many Senses in a Gnat Ubi visum praetendit ubi gustatum applicavit ubi odoratum inseruit ubi verò truculentam illam portione maximam vocem ingeneravit quâ subtilitate pennas adnexuit praelongavit pedum crura disposuit jejunam caveam uti alvum avidam sanguinis potissimum humani sitim accendit telum vero perfodiendo tergori quo spiculavit ingenio atque ut in capaci cùm cerni non possit exilitas ità reciproca geminavit arte ut fodiendo acuminatum pariter sorbendoque fistulosum esset Which Words should I translate would lose of their emphasis and elegancy If I say he could make such Queries about the Members of a Gnat. What may we make and what
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
a Skinny Substance or hinder the swallowing of our Meat therefore these annulary Gristles are not made round or entire Circles but where the Gullet touches the Windpipe there to fill up the Circle is only a soft Membrane which may easily give way to the Dilatation of the Gullet And to demonstrate that this was designedly done for this End and Use so soon as the Windpipe enters the Lungs its Cartilages are no longer deficient but perfect Circles or Rings because there was no necessity they should be so but it was more convenient they should be entire Lâ—â—â—ly for the various modulation of the Voice the upper end of the Wind-pipe is endued with several Cartilages and Muscles to contract or dilate it as we would have our Voice Flat or Sharp and moreover the whole is continually moistened with a glutinous Humor issuing out of the small Glandules that are upon its inner Coat to fence it against the sharp Air received in or Breath forced out yet is it of quick and tender Sense that it may be easily provoked to cast out by coughing whatever may fall into it from without or be discharged into it from within Seventhly The Heart which hath been always esteemed and really is one of the principal Parts of the Body the primum vivens ultimum moriens by its uncessant Motion distributing the Blood the Vehicle of Life and with it the Vital Heat and Spirits throughout the whole Body whereby it doth continually irrigate nourish and keep hot and supple all the Members Is it not admirable that from this Fountain of Life and Heat there should be Channels and Conduit-pipes to every even the least and most remote Part of the Body just as if from one Waterhouse there should be Pipes conveying the Water to every House in a Town and to every Room in each House or from one Fountain in a Garden there should be little Channels or Dikes cut to every Bed and every Plant growing therein as we have seen more than once done beyond the Seas I confess the Heart seems not to be designed to so noble an Use as is generally believed that is to be the Fountain or Conservatory of the vital Flame and to inspire the Blood therewith for the Lungs serve rather for the accension or maintaining that Flame the Blood receiving there from the Air those Particles which are one Part of the Pabulum or Fewel thereof and so impregnated running back to the Heart but to serve as a Machine to receive the Blood from the Veins and to force it out by the Arteries through the whole Body as a Syringe doth any Liquor though not by the same Artifice And yet this is no ignoble Use the continuance of the Circulation of the Blood being indispensibly necessary for the quickening and enlivening of all the Members of the Body and supplying of Matter to the Brain for the preparation of the Animal Spirits the Instruments of all Sense and Motion Now for this use of receiving and pumping out of the Blood the Heart is admirably contrived For First being a Muscular Part the Sides of it are composed of two orders of Fibres running circularly or spirally from Base to Tip contrarily one to the other and so being drawn or contracted contrary ways do violently constringe and straiten the Ventricles and strongly force out the Blood as we have formerly intimated Then the Vessels we call Arteries which carry from the Heart to the several Parts have Valves which open outwards like Trap-doors and give the Blood a free passage out of the Heart but will not suffer it to return back again thither and the Veins which bring it back from the several Members to the Heart have Valves or Trap-doors which open inwards so as to give way to the Blood to run into the Heart but prevent it from running back again that way Besides the Arteries consist of a quandruple Coat the Third of which is made up of annular or orbicular carneous Fibres to a good thickness and is of a Muscular Nature after every Pulse of the Heart serving to contract the Vessel successively with incredible celerity so by a kind of peristaltick Motion impelling the Blood onwards to the capillary Extremities and through the Muscles with great force and swiftness So the Pulse of the Arteries is not only caused by the pulsation of the Heart driving the Blood through them in manner of a Wave or Flush as Des Cartes and others would have it but by the Coats of the Arteries themselves which the experiments of a certain Lovain Physitian the first whereof is Galens do in my opinion make good against him First saith he if you slit the Artery and thrust into it a Pipe so big as to fill the Cavity of it and cast a strait ligature upon that part of the Artery containing the Pipe and so bind it fast to the Pipe notwithstanding the Blood hath free passage through the Pipe yet will not the Artery beat below the ligature but do but take off the ligature it will commence again to beat immediately But because one might be ready to reply to this Experiment that the reason why when bound it did not beat was because the current of the Blood being straitned by the Pipe when beneath the Pipe it came to have more liberty was not sufficient to stretch the Coats of the Artery and so cause a Pulse but when the ligature was taken off it might flow between the enclosed tube and the Coat of the Artery therefore he adds another which clearly evinces that this could not be the reason but that it is something flowing down the Coats of the Artery that causes the Pulse that is If you straiten the Artery never so much provided the sides of it do not quite meet and stop all passage of the Blood the Vessel will notwithstanding continue still to beat below or beyond the Coarctation So we see some Physitians both Ancient as Galen and Modern were of opinion that the Pulse of the Arteries was owing to their Coats though the first that I know of who observed the third Coat of an Artery to be a muscular Body composed of annulary Fibres was Dr. Willis The mention of the peristaltick Motion puts me in mind of an ocular Demonstration of it in the Gullet of Kine when they chew the Cud which I have often beheld with pleasure For after they have swallowed one morsel if you look stedfastly upon their Throat you will soon see another ascend and run pretty swiftly all along the Throat up to the Mouth which it could not do unless it were impelled by the successive contraction or peristaltick Motion of the Gullet continually following it And it is remarkable that these ruminant Creatures have a power by the imperium of their wills of directing this peristaltick Motion upwards or downwards I shall add no more concerning the Heart but that it and the Brain do mutuas operas tradere enable one another
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