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the female parent, needs only to alight on the ground, or make a little excursion into the air, and find a feast ready dressed for the mouths at home.

Their love to their offspring, while they are helpless, is invincibly strong; whereas the moment they are able to shift for themselves, it vanishes as though it had never been. The hen that marches at the head of her little brood, would fly at a mastiff in their defence; yet within a few weeks, she leaves them to the wide world, and does not even know them any more.

If the God of Israel inspired Bezaleel and Aholiah with wisdom and knowledge in all manner of workmanship, the God of nature has not been wanting, in his instructions to the fowls of the air. The skill with which they erect their houses, and adjust their apartments, is inimitable. The caution with which they hide their abodes from the searching eye, or intruding hand, is admirable. No general, though fruitful in expedients, could build commodious a lodgment. Give the most celebrated artificer the same materials, which these weak and unexperienced creatures use Let a Jones or a Demoivre have only some rude stones or ugly sticks, a few bits of dirt or scraps of hair, a lock of wool, or a coarse sprig of moss: and what works could they produce? We extol the commander, who knows how to take advantage of the ground; who by every circumstance embarrasses the forces of his enemy, and advances the success of his own. Does not this praise belong to the feathered leaders; who fix their pensile camp, on the dangerous branches that wave aloft in the air, or dance over the stream? By this means the vernal gales rock their cradle, and the murmuring waters lull the young, while both concur to terrify their enemies, and keep them at a distance. Some hide their little household from view, amidst the shelter of intangled furze. Others remove it from discovery, in the centre of a thorny thicket. And by one stratagem or another they are generally as secure, as if they intrenched themselves in the earth.

If the swan has large sweeping wings, and a copious stock of feathers, to spread over his callow young, the wren makes up by contrivance what is wanting in her bulk. Small as she is, she will be obliged to nurse up a very numerous issue. Therefore with surprising judgment she designs,

and with wonderful diligence finishes her nest. It is a neat oval, bottomed and vaulted over with a regular concave; within made soft with down, without thatched with moss, only a small aperture left for her entrance. By this means the enlivening heat of her body is greatly increased during the time of incubation. And her young no sooner burst the shell, than they find themselves skreened from the annoyance of the weather, and comfortably reposed till they gather strength in the warmth. of a bagnio.

Perhaps we have been accustomed to look upon insects, as so many rude scraps of creation, but if we examine them with attention, they will appear some of the most polished pieces of divine workmanship. Many of them are decked with the richest finery. Their eyes are an assemblage of microscopes: the common fly, for instance, who, surrounded with enemies, has neither strength to resist, nor a place of retreat to secure herself. For this reason she has need to be very vigilant, and always upon her guard. But her head is so fixed that it cannot turn to see what passes, either behind or around her. Providence therefore has given her, not barely a retina, but more than a legion of eyes: insomuch that a single fly is supposed to be mistress of no less than eight thousand. By the help of this truly amazing apparatus, she sees on every side, with the utmost case and speed, though without any motion of the eye, or flexion of the neck.

The dress of insects is a vesture of resplendent colours set with an arrangement of the brightest gems. Their wings are the finest expansion imaginable, compared to which lawn is as coarse as sack-cloth. The cases, which enclose their wings, glitter with the finest varnish, are scooped into ornamental flutings, are studded with radiant spots, or pinked with elegant holes. Not one but is endued with weapons to seize their prey, and dexterity to escape their foe, to dispatch the business of their station, and enjoy the pleasure of their

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whatever might defile their neat apparel, or endanger their tender lives.

Every one admires the majestic horse. With how rapid career does he bound along the plain! Yet the grass-hopper springs forward with a bound abundantly more impetuous. The ant too, in proportion to his size, excels him both in swiftness and strength: and will climb precipices, which the most courageous courser dares not attempt to scale. If the snail moves more slowly, she has however no need to go the same way twice over: because whenever she departs, wherever she removes, she is always at home.

The eagle, it is true, is privileged with pinions that outstrip the wind. Yet neither is that poor outcast, the grovelling mole, disregarded by Divine Providence. Because she is to dig her cell in the earth, her paws serve for a pick-axe and spade. Her eye is sunk deep into its socket, that it may not be hurt by her rugged situation. And as it needs very little light, she has no reason to complain of her dark abode. So that her subterranean habitation, which some might call a dungeon, yields her all the safety of a fortified castle, and all the delights of a decorated grot.

Even the spider, though abhorred by man, is the care of all-sustaining heaven. She is to support herself by trepanning the wandering fly. Suitably to her employ, she has bags of glutinous moisture. From this she spins a clammy thread, and weaves it into a tenacious net. This she spreads in the most opportune place. But know ing her appearance would deter him from approaching, she then retires out of sight. Yet she constantly keeps within distance: so as to receive immediate intelligence when any thing falls into her toils, ready to spring out in the very instant. And it is observable, when winter chills the air, and no more insects rove through it, knowing her labour would be in vain, she leaves her stand, and discontinues her

work.

I must not forget the inhabitants of the hive. The bees subsist as a regular community. And their indulgent Creator has given them all implements necessary either for building their combs, or composing their honey. They have each a portable vessel, in which they bring home their collected sweets: and they have the most commodious storehouses, wherein they deposit them. They readily distinguish every plant which

affords materials for their business: and are complete practitioners in the arts of separation and refinement. They are aware that the vernal bloom and summer sun continue but for a season. Therefore they im prove to the utmost every shining hour, and lay up a stock sufficient to supply the whole state, till their flowery harvest returns.

If the master of this lower creation is ennobled with the powers of reason, the meanest classes of sensitive beings are endued with the faculty of instinct: a saga. city which is neither derived from observation, nor waits the finishing of experience; which without a tutor teaches them all necessary skill, and enables them without a pattern to perform every needful operation. And what is more remarkable, it never misleads them, either into erroneous principles, or pernicious practices; nor ever fails them in the most nice and difficult of their undertakings.

Let us step into another element, and just visit the watery world. There is not one among the innumerable myriads, that swim the boundless ocean, but is watched over by the sovereign eye, and supported by his Almighty hand. He has condescended even to beautify them. He has given the most exact proportion to their shape, the gayest colours to their skin, and a polished surface to their scales. The eyes of some are surrounded with a scarlet circle: the back of others diversified with crimson stains. View them when they glance along the stream, or when they are fresh from their native brine, the silver is not more bright, nor the rainbow more glowing than their vivid, glossy hues.

But as they have neither hands nor feet, how can they help themselves, or escape their enemies? By the beneficial, as well as ornamental furniture of fas. These when expanded, like masts above, and ballasts below, poise their floating bodies, and keep them steadily upright. They are likewise greatly assisted by the flexibility and vigor ous activity of their tails; with which they shoot through the paths of the sea, swifter than a vessel with all its sails. But we are lost in wonder at the exquisite contrivance and delicate formation of their gills: by which they are accommodated, even in that dense medium, with the benefits of respira tion! A piece of mechanism this, indulged to the meanest of the fy: yet infinitely surpassing, in the Eneress of its structure

and

and operation, whatever is curious in the works of art, or commodious in the palaces of princes.

§6. Observations on the difference between things natural and artificial.

If we examine the finest needle by the microscope, the point of it appears about a quarter of an inch broad, and its figure neither round nor flat, but irregular and unequal. And the surface, however smooth and bright it may seem to the naked eye, is then seen full of raggedness, holes, and scratches, like an iron bar from the forge. But examine in the same manner the sting of a bee, and it appears to have in every part a polish most amazingly beautiful, without the least flaw, or inequality, and ends in a point too fine to be discerned by any glass whatever; and yet this is only the outward sheath of far more exquisite

instruments.

A small piece of the finest lawn, from the distance and holes between its threads, appears like a lattice or hurdle. And the threads themselves seem coarser than the yarn wherewith ropes are made for anchors. Fine Brussels lace will look as if it were made of a thick, rough, uneven hair-line, intwisted or clotted together in a very aukward and unartful manner. But a silk worm's web on the nicest examination, appears perfectly smooth and shining, and as much finer than any spinster in the world can make, as the smallest twine is than the thickest cable. A pod of this silk winds into nine hundred and thirty yards. And as it is two threads twisted together all the length, so it really contains one thousand eight hundred and sixty; and yet weighs but two grains and an half. What an exquisite fineness! and yet this is nothing to the silk that issued from the worm's mouth when newly hatched.

The smallest dot which can be made with a pen, appears through a glass a vast irregular spot, rough, jagged, and uneven about all its edges. The finest writing (such as the Lord's Prayer in the compass of a silver penny) seems as shapeless and uncouth as if wrote in Runic characters. But the specks of moths, beetles, flies, and other insects, are most accurately circular and all the lines and marks about them are drawn to the utmost possibility

of exactness.

Our finest miniature paintings appear

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before a microscope, as mere daubings, plaistered on with a trowel. Our smoothest polishings are shown to be mere roughness, full of gaps and flaws. Thus do the works of art sink, upori an accurate examination. On the contrary, the nearer we examine the works of nature, even in the least and meanest of her productions, the more we are convinced nothing is to be found there but beauty and perfection. View the numberless species of insects, what exactness and symmetry shall we find in all their organs! What a profusion of colouring, azure, green, vermillion; what fringe and embroidery on every part! How high the finishing, how inimitable the polish we every where behold! Yea, view the animalculæ, invisible to the naked eye, those breathing atoms so small, they are almost all workmanship: in them too we discover the same multiplicity of parts, diversity of figures, and variety of motions, as in the largest animals. How amazingly curious must the internal structure of these creatures be! how minute the bones, joints, muscles, and tendons! how exquisitely delicate the veins, arteries, nerves! what multitudes of vessels and circulations must be contained in this narrow compass! and yet all have sufficient room for their several offices, without interfering with each other!

The same regularity and beauty is found in vegetables. Every stalk, bud, flower, and seed, displays a figure, a proportion, an harmony, beyond the reach of

art.

There is not a weed whose every leaf does not shew a multiplicity of pores and vessels curiously disposed for the conveyance of juices, to support and nourish it, and which is not adorned with innumerable graces to embellish it.

But some may ask, to what purpose has nature bestowed so much expense on so insignificant creatures? I answer, this very thing proves they are not so insignificant, as we fondly suppose. This beauty is given them either for their own sake, that they themselves may be delighted with it, or for ours, that we may observe in them the amazing power and goodness of the Creator. If the former, they are of consequence in the account of their Maker, and therefore deserve our regard. If the latter, then it is certainly our duty to take notice of, and admire them.

In short, the whole universe is a picture, in which are displayed the perfections of

the Deity. It shews not only his existence, but his unity, his power, his wis lom, his independence, his goodness. His unity appears in the harmony we cannot but see in all the parts of nature; in that one simple end to which they are directed, and the conformity of all the means thereto. On every side we discern either simple elements or compound bodies, which have all different actions and offices. What the fire inflames, the water quenches: what one wind freezes, another thaws. But these and a thousand other operations, so seemingly repugnant to each other, do ne. vertheless all concur, in a wonderful manner, to produce one effect. And all are so necessary to the main design, that were the agency of any one destroyed, an interrup. tion of the order and harmony of the creation must immediately ensue.

Suppose, for instance, the wind to be taken away, and all society is in the utmost disorder. Navigation is at a stand, and all our commerce with foreign nations destroyed. On the other hand the vapours raised from the sea would remain suspended, just where they rose. Conse.. quently we should be deprived of that useful covering the clouds, which now skreens us from the scorching heat: yea, and of the fruitful rains. So our land would be parched up, the fruits of the earth wither, animals die, through hunger and thirst, and all nature languish and droop. All the parts of nature there are were constituted for the assistance of each other, and all undeniably prove the unity of their Omniscient Creator.

His power appears in the whole frame of creation, and his wisdom in every part of it. His independence is pointed out in the inexhaustible variety of beasts, birds, fishes, and insects: and his goodness, in taking care of every one of these, opening his hand, and filling all things living with plenteousness.

Every thing is calculated by Divine Wisdom, to make us wiser and better. And this is the substance of true philosophy. We cannot know much. In vain does our shallow reason attempt to fathom the mysteries of nature, and to pry into the secrets of the Almighty. His ways are past finding out. The eye of a little worm is a subject capable of exhausting all our boasted speculations. But we may love much. And herein we may be assisted by contemplating the wonders of his

creation. Indeed he seems to have laid the highest claim to this tribute of our love, by the care he has taken to manifest his goodness in the most conspicuous manner, while at the same time he has concealed from us the most curious particulars, with regard to the essences and structure of his works. And to this our igno rance it is owing, that we fancy so many things to be useless in the creation. But a deep sense of his goodness will satisfy all our doubts, and resolve all our scruples.

7. Considerations on the Nature of Man.

Near 6000 years are elapsed since the creation. At first there were only two human beings. When the flood came upon the earth, which was 1656 years from the beginning of time, these two had increased, according to a moderate compu tation, to the number of 10,737,118,240 persons. From Noah and his family are sprung the present race of men, and are generally supposed to be only about 358,000,000 persons.

If we proceed from the number to the nature of reasonable beings, we shall find much of the wisdom and goodness of God displayed in the structure of the human body, as well as in the all-directing mind.

Let us begin with the less adorned, but more solid parts, those which support, and which contain the rest. First, you have a system of bones, cast in a variety of moulds, in a variety of sizes: all strong, that they may bear up the machine, yet light, that they may not weigh us down: bored with an inward cavity to contain the moistening marrow, and perforated with fine ducts, to admit the nourishing vessels. Insensible themselves, they are covered with a membrane, exquisitely sensible, which warns them of, and secures them from the annoyance of any hurtful friction and also preserves the muscles from being fretted in their action, by the hard and rough substance of the bone. They are largest at the extremities, that they may be joined more firmly, and not so easily dislocated. The manner of their articulation is truly admirable, and remarkably various: yet never varied without demonstrating some wise design, and answering some valuable end. Frequently when two are united, the one is nicely rounded and capped with a smooth substance; the other is scooped into an hol

low

low of the same dimensions to receive it. And both are lubricated with an unctuous fluid, to facilitate the rotation.

The feet compose the firmest pedestal, infinitely beyond all that statuary can accomplish; capable of altering its form, and extending its size, as different circumstances require. They likewise contain a set of the nicest springs, which help to place the body in a variety of attitudes, and qualify it for a multiplicity of motions. The undermost part of the heel, and the extremity of the sole, are shod with a tough insensible substance: a kind of natural sandal which never wears out, never wants repair and which prevents an undue compression of the vessels by the weight of the body. The legs and thighs are like stately columns, so articulated that they are commodious for walking, and yet do not obstruct the easy posture of sitting. The legs swell out towards the top with a genteel projection, and are neatly wrought off towards the bottom: a variation which lessens their bulk, while it increases their beauty.

The ribs, turned into a regular arch, are gently moveable, for the act of respiration. They form a safe lodgement for the lungs and heart, some of the most important organs of life. The back-bone is designed, not only to strengthen the body, and sustain its most capacious store-rooms, but also to bring down the continuation of the brain, usually termed the spinal marrow. It both conveys and guards this silver cord, as Solomon terms it, and by commodious outlets transmits it to all parts. Had it been only strait and hollow, might have served these purposes. But then the loins must have been inflexible: to avoid which, it consists of very short bones knit together by cartilages. This peculiarity of structure gives it the pliancy of an osier, with the firmness of an oak. By this means it is capable of various infections, without bruising the soft marrow, or diminishing that strength which is necessary to support all the upper stories. Such a formation in any other of the solids, must have occasioned great inconvenience. Here it is unspeakably useful, a masterpiece of creating skill.

the structure.

diversified and extensive operations; firm with bone, yet not weighty with flesh, and capable of performing all useful motions. They bend in wards and turn outwards: they move upwards or downwards. They wheel about in whatever direction we please. To these are added the hands, terminated by the fingers, not of the same length, nor of equal bigness, but in both respects different, which gives the more beauty, and far greater usefulness. Were they all flesh, they would be weak; were they one entire bone, they would be utterly inflexible but consisting of various little bones and muscles, what shape can they not assume? Being placed at the end of the arm, the sphere of their action is exceedingly enlarged. Their extremities are an assemblage of fine tendinous fibres, acutely sensible: which notwithstanding are destined to almost incessant employ, and frequently among rugged objects. For this reason they are overlaid with nails, which preserve them from any painful impressions.

In the hand we have a case of the finest instruments. To those we owe those beau tiful statues, this melodious trumpet. By the strength of the hand the tallest firs fall, and the largest oaks descend from the mountains. Fashioned by the hand they are a floating warehouse, and carry the productions of art and nature from Britain to Japan.

The hand is the original and universal sceptre, which not only represents, but ascertains our dominion over all the ele ments and over every creature. Though we have not the strength of the horse, the swiftness of the greyhound, or the quick scent of the spaniel, yet directed by the understanding, and enabled by the hand, we can as it were make them all our own. These short hands have found a way to penetrate the bowels of the earth, to touch the bottom of the sea. These feeble hands can manage the wings of the wind, arm themselves with the violence of fire, and press into their service the forcible impetuosity of water. How greatly then are

we indebted to our wise Creator, for this distinguishing, this invaluable mem

ber.

The arms are exactly proportioned to Above all is the head, for the residence each other, to preserve the equilibrium of of the brain, ample to receive, and firm These being the guards to defend it. It has a communication with that defend, and the ministers that serve all, even the remotest parts; has outlets the whole body, are fitted for the most for dispatching couriers to all quarters,

and

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