I have now finifh'd the Account of this Section: and was juft going to take off my Hand here. But recollecting that,in the foregoing Part of this Work*, I promised some fur- * Pag. ther Proofs of Contrivance in the Structure of the Globe we dwell upon and fuch too as may fatisfy any fair and unbyafs'd Spectator that the Frameing and Compofition of it out of the Materials of the former Earth was a Work of Counfel and Sagacity: a Work apparently above the highest Reaches of Chance, or the Powers of Nature; and this being a proper Place wherein to produce thofe Proofs, I fhall give fuch Hints of them as the Brevity I am tyed up to will permitt me, and then conclude.

12.

I am indeed well aware that the Author of the Theory of the Earth * * Lib. 1. differs very much from me in Opi- Cap. 9. to nion as to this Matter. He will not allow that there are any fuch Signs of Art and Skill in the Make of the prefent Globe as are here mention'd or that there was fo great Care, and fuch exact Measures taken in the re-fitting of it up again

at

at the Deluge. He reckons it no other than an huge diforderly Pile of Ruines and Rubbish and is very unwilling to believe that it was the Product of any Reafoning or Defigning Agent. The Chanel of the Ocean appears to him the most ghaftly Thing in Nature, and he cannot at all admire its Beauty or Elegancy: for 'tis, in his judgment, as deformed and irregular as it is great. And for the Caverns of the Earth, the Fiffures and Breaches of the Strata, he cannot fancy that they were formed by any Work of Nature, nor by any immediate Action of God, feeing there is neither Ufe, that he can difcover, nor Beauty in this Kind of Conftruction. Then for the Mountains, thefe, he fays, are placed in no Order one with another, that can either refpect Ufe or Beauty, and do not confift of any Proportion of Parts that is referable to any Defign, or that bath the leaft Footsteps of Art or Counfel. In fine, he thinks there are feveral Things in the Terraqueous Globe that are rude and unfeemly : and many that are fuperfluous. He looks upon it as incommodious, and

as

as a broken and confused Heap of Bodyes, placed in no Order to one another, nor with any Correspondency or Regularity of Parts: and it feems, to him, nothing better than a rude Lump, and a little dirty Planet. I have given his Opinion in his own Words, though I have upon all like Occafions taken a fhorter Courfe, and contented my felf with giving only the Sense of Others; but this I have done, here, leaft any Man fhould fufpect that I miftake the Author's Sentiments, or do not reprefent them fairly.

Now though it were realy fo, that there were fome fuch EyeSores in our Earth as are here fuggefted and that we could not prefently find out all the Gayetyes and Embelishments that we might feek for in it, the Matter would not be great and we might very well be contented to take it as we find it. But after all, the Thing is quite otherwife, and there are none of all thefe wanting; nor any fuch Deformityes as are here imagined but, on the contrary, fo very many real Graces and Beautyes, that 'tis M

no

no eafy Thing to overlook them all. Even this very Variety of Sea and Land, of Hill and Dale, which is here reputed fo inelegant and unbecoming, is indeed extreamly charming and agreeable. Nor do I offer this as any private Fancy of my own, but as the common Sense of Mankind, who are the true and proper Judges in the Cafe; both the Antients and Moderns, giving their Suffrages unanimously herein. Even the very Heathens themselves, have esteemed this Variety not only ornamental to the Earth, but a Proof of the Wisdom of the Creator of it, and alledged it as fuch; whereof more in due Place.

A

And, as I cannot admitt that there is any thing unbandsome or irregular: 'fo much lefs can I grant that there is any thing incommodious and Artlefs, or ufelefs and fuperfluous, in the Globe. Were I at full Liberty to do it here, 'twould be no hard thing to make appear that there are no real Grounds for any fuch Charge. For how eafy were it, by taking a minute and diftinct Survey of the Globe, and of the very many and

various

may

various Limbs and Parts of it, to fhew that all these are order'd and digested with infinite Exactness and Artifice; each in fuch Manner as beft ferve to its own proper End, and to the Ufe of the whole? How eafy were it to fhew, that the Rocks, the Mountains, and the Caverns, against which thefe Exceptions are made, are of indifpenfible Ufe and Neceffity, as well to the Earth as to Man and other Animals, and even to all the rest of its Productions ? that there are no fuch Blemishes, no Defects nothing that might have been alter'd for the better, nothing fuperfluous nothing useless, in all the whole Compofition? and fo finaly trace out the numerous Footfteps and Marks of the Prefence and Interpofition of a moft wife and intelligent Architect throughout all this realy wonderfull Fabrick? But I muft referve this for a fitter Opportunity, and content my felf for the prefent with only giving fome brief Intimations of it in the following Propofitions. Namely,

That 'twas abfolutely neceffary for the well being both of the Earth