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SECTION II.

THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD IN THE CREATION.

INDE HOMINUM PECUDUMQUE GENUS, VITEQUE

VOLANTUM,

ET QUE MARMOREO FERT MONSTRA SUB EQUORE

PONTUS.

VIRG.

THOUGH there is a great deal of pleafure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that system of bodies into which Nature has fo curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the several relations which thofe bodies bear to one another; there is ftill, methinks, fomething more wonderful and furprising in contemplations on the world of life, by which I mean all thofe animals with which every part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the fhell of the universe: the world of life are its inhabitants.

If we confider those parts of the material world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore fubject to our observations

and

and enquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which it is ftocked. Every part of matter is peopled: every green leaf fwarms with inhabitants. There is scarce a fingle humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glaffes do not discover myriads of living creatures. The furface of animals is also covered with other animals, which are in the fame manner the bafis of other animals, that live upon it; nay, we find in the most solid bodies, as in marble itfelf, innumerable cells and cavities, that are crouded with such imperceptible inhabitants, as are too little for the naked eye to discover. On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we fee the feas, lakes, and rivers teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures: we find every mountain and marsh, wildernefs and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beafts, and every part of matter affording proper neceffaries and conveniencies for the livelihood of multitudes which inhabit it.

The author of the Plurality of Worlds draws

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draws a very good argument from this confideration, for the peopling of every planet; as indeed it seems very probable from the analogy of reason, that if no part of matter, which we are acquainted with, lies waste and useless, those great bodies which are at fuch a diftance from us fhould not be defart and unpeopled, but rather that they fhould be furnished with Beings adapted to their respective fituations.

Existence is a bleffing to those Beings only which are endowed with perception, and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any further than as it is fubfervient to Beings which are conscious of their Existence. Accordingly we find, from the bodies which lie under our obfervation, that matter is only made as the bafis and support of animals, and that there is no more of the one, than what is neceffary for the Existence of the other.

Infinite Goodnefs is of fo communicative a nature, that it seems to delight in the conferring of Existence upon every degree of perceptive Being. As this is a

fpecu

fpeculation, which I have often pursued with great pleasure to myself, I fhall enlarge farther upon it, by confidering that part of the scale of Beings which comes within our knowledge.

There are fome living creatures, which are raised but just above dead matter. To mention only that fpecies of shell-fish, which are formed in the fashion of a cone, that grow to the furface of several rocks, and immediately die upon their being fevered from the place where they grow. There are many other creatures but one remove from these, which have no other fenfe befides that of feeling and tafte. Others have ftill an additional one of hearing; others of smell, and others of fight. It is wonderful to observe, by what a gradual progrefs the world of life advances through a prodigious variety of fpecies, before a creature is formed that is complete in all its senses; and even among these there is fuch a different degree of perfection in the sense which one animal enjoys beyond what appears in another, that though the sense in different animals

be distinguished by the fame common denomination, it seems almoft of a different nature. If after this we look into the feveral inward perfections of cunning and fagacity, or what we generally call Inftinct, we find them rifing after the fame manner, imperceptibly one above another, and receiving additional improvements, according to the species in which they are implanted. This progress in Nature is fo very gradual, that the most perfect of an inferior fpecies comes very near to the most imperfect of that which is immediately above it.

The exuberant and overflowing goodnefs of the Supreme Being, whose mercy extends to all his works, is plainly seen, as I have before hinted, from his having made fo very little matter, at least what falls within our knowledge, that does not fwarm with life: nor is his goodness lefs seen in the diverfity, than in the multitude of living creatures. Had he only made one species of animals, none of the reft would have enjoyed the happiness of existence; he has, therefore, specified in

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