forming their own places of habitation or fecurity with the greatest exactness. These things fhew, that though they do not direct themselves, yet they are directed by a constant and unerring wisdom. Again, if we confider the convenient structure and apt difpofition of the feveral parts of the different kinds of creatures, as Beasts, Birds and Fishes, how they are fitted to their feveral Elements, and the ways of living in them; fo that how different foever their bulk or figure be, yet we cannot fay, but that each of them is moft conveniently adapted to its own region, and to the procuring that food which it is to live upon, and to the providing that fecurity and defence which is most proper for it; this is an inftance of wisdom and forefight conftantly fuiting proper means to their respective

ends.

To use the words of an excellent Author (Dr. Barrow) upon this occafion: "Thus "much is palpably manifeft, that each of "these fo many curious organs was designed "and fitted on purpose to that chief use or operation we see it to perform: This of "them, to continue the kind, that, to preferve “the individuum: This, to difcern what is neceffary

P 4

This, to en

that, to reor to guard

"neceffary, convenient or pleasant to the "creáture, or what is dangerous, offenfive, or "deftructive thereto, that, to pursue or embrace, to decline or fhun it: "joy what is procured of good, "move what is hurtful or useless, "from mischief or injury. That each one is “furnished with apt inftruments fuitable to "its particular needs, appetites, capacities, fta❝tions, is most apparent. Whence could all "this proceed? Whence came all these parts "to be fo fashioned and fuited, all of them fo "neceffary, or so convenient, that none, with"out the imperfection and the prejudice of "the creature, fome not without its deftru«ction, can be wanting? Who shaped and "tempered those hidden subtle fprings of life,

fense, imagination, memory, paffion? Who

impressed on them a motion fo regular and «fo durable, which through so many years, "among fo many adverse contingencies af failing it, is yet fo fteadily maintained? Can this proceed from giddy Chance or blind Neceffity? And again," All "that grace and beauty, which so delights "our fense beholding it, all that correfpondence and fymmetry which fo fatisfies our

"

"mind confidering it, all that virtue and energy extending to performances fo great " and admirable, muft they be ascribed to "causes of no worth, and supposed done to no purpose ?

I might farther take notice more particularly of the exquifite formation and difpofition of the feveral organs of fenfation, as the eye, the ear, and the reft, and with what wonderful contrivance and nicety they are adapted in every creature, to their proper bufiness and manner of life: And though they are fo curious and of fo fine a fstructure, yet how well they are guarded against any thing that may hurt or annoy them. But I forbear to infift upon these things, both because they have been often handled, in diftinct Treatifes upon them, to more advantage; and because the whole animal economy is fo apparently the work of wisdom and defign, that hardly any one has been well acquainted with it, though in other refpects not very forward in owning any fentiments of Religion, but has yet, by the irresistable evidence of the thing, been brought to confess a wife contrivance in it; as Ariftotle, Pliny, Galen and others, among the ancients; and divers others of later times,

Ariftotle

• Ariftotle not only conftantly affirms it as an axiom, that Nature [and fometimes that God and Nature] does nothing in vain, or without reafon and defign; and that all natural things P are done for fome end; and that 9 Nature always does the best that is poffible, in as conftant a manner as Art: fo that if there be any evidence of design in things artificial, there is the fame in things natural, the end and means in each being manifestly suited to one another: but in the introduction to his Treatife, of the parts of Animals, he afferts, that there is more of defign and beauty (or good) in the works of nature, than in the works of art: and indeed, he every where lays great stress upon final caufes, neceffity fuppofe a wife Agent:

S

which of

This, he fays,

• Ο 5 Θεὸς καὶ ἡ φύσις ἐδὲν μάτίω ποιέσιν. Arif. de calo. lib. I. cap. 4. Ἡ δὲ φύσις ἐδὲν αλόγως εἰδὲ μάτίω ποιεῖ. ib. lib. 2. cap. 11.

'Ενεκά τε η

* ἕνικά τ8.

τα

ἅπαντα ὑπάρχει τὰ φύσει, ἢ συμπτώματα ἔται Lib. 3. De Anima. cap. 12.

9 Ει ἦν τὰ καὶ τέχνίω ἕνεκα τω, δηλονότι καὶ τὰ καὶ φύσιν, ότ μοίως ηδ' έχει πρὸς ἄλληλα ἐν τοῖς καὶ τέχνίω καὶ ἐν τοῖς καὶ φύσιν, Tá üseng wey's te weýreng. Arift. Phyfic. lib. 2. cap. 8. where he has much more to this purpose, very well worth obferving.

* Μᾶλλον δ ̓ ἐπὶ τὸ ' ἕνεκα καὶ τὸ καλὸν ἐν τοῖς ἡ φύσεως ἔργοις, # TOTS & TEXrns. De partib. Anim. lib. 1. cap. I.

5 Μάλισα 3 φανερὸν ἐπὶ τ ζώων ἢ ἄλλων, ο ἔτε τέχνη ἔτε ζητήσαντα

fays, is manifeft in those animals, which work neither by art, nor enquiry, nor learning, nor upon deliberation: Which makes fome doubt, whether it be not by a mind or understanding, that Spiders and other infects work; but if we proceed a little farther, there is the fame appearance of final caufes, or a tendency towards an end, or defign, even in plants; as that the leaves are made for the covering of the fruit, &c.

t

Pliny in moft cafes goes upon Epicurean principles, and fhews no fuch fense of the fundamental principles of Religion, as Ariftotle does, and yet even he cannot forbear admiring the wonderful Art and Contrivance of nature, even in the smallest animals; and he inftances particularly in the body of a gnat, which yet, he truly owns, is not the least of

any

ζητήσαντα ἔτε βολουσάμενα ποιεῖ· διὸ ὑπηρεσί τινες πότερον νῷ ἢ τινι ἄλλῳ ἐργάζονται οἵ τε αράχναι καὶ οἱ μύρμηκες καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα. of και μικρὸν δ' ὅτω προϊόντι καὶ ἐν τοῖς φυτοῖς φαίνεται τὰ συμφέροντα γινόμενα πρὸς τὸ τέλω, οἷον τὰ φύλλα ἕνεκα τ τὲ καρπᾶ σκέτ ans, &c. Quoix. axegus. lib. 2. cap. 8.

---Nufquam alibi fpectatiore naturæ rerum artificio. Plin. H. Nat. l.xi. cap. I, 2.

In his tam parvis tamque nullis quæ ratio, quanta vis, quam inextricabilis perfectio? Ubi tot fenfus collocavit in culice, & funt alia dictu minora, &c. Plin. ib.

---Cum rerum natura nufquam magis quam in minimis to◄ ta fit.