together in a due proportion of uniformity and variety, would be too grofs to pass current: as nothing can be more grofs, than to employ in a definition the véry term that is to be explained. b APPENDIX TO CHAP. IX. Concerning the Works of Nature, chiefly with respect to IN things of Nature's workmanship, whether we regard their internal or external structure, beauty and defign are equally confpicuous. We fhall begin with the outfide of nature, as what firft presents itself. The figure of an organic body is generally regular. The trunk of a tree, its branches, and their ramifications, are nearly round, and form a feries regularly decreafing from the trunk to the smallest fibre uniformity is no where more remarkable than in the leaves, which, in the fame fpecies, have all the fame colour, fize, and fhape: the feeds and fruits are all regular figures, approaching for the most part to the globular form. Hence a plant, especially of the larger kind, with its trunk, branches, foliage, and fruit, is a charming object.' In an animal, the trunk, which is much larger than the other parts, occupies a chief place: its fhape; like that of the stem of plants, is nearly round: a figure which of all is the most agreeable: its two fides are precifely fimilar: feveral of the under parts go off in pairs; and the two individuals of each pair are accurately uniform: the fingle parts are placed in the middle the limbs, bearing a certain proportion to the the trunk, ferve to fupport it, and to give it a proper elevation upon one extremity are disposed the neck and head, in the direction of the trunk: the head being the chief part, poffeffes with great propriety the chief place. Hence, the beauty of the whole figure, is the refult of many equal and proportional parts orderly difpofed; and the fmallest variation in number, equality, proportion, or order, never fails to produce a perception of deformity. Nature in no particular feems more profufe of ornament, than in the beautiful colouring of her works. The flowers of plants, the furs of beasts, and the feathers of birds, vie with each other in the beauty of their colours, which in luftre as well as in harmony are beyond the power of imitation. Of all natural appearances, the colouring of the human face is the most exquifite; it is the strongest inftance of the ineffable art of nature, in adapting and propor tioning its colours to the magnitude, figure and pofition, of the parts. In a word, colour feems to live in nature only, and to languifh under the finest touches of art. When we examine the internal ftructure of a plant or animal, a wonderful fubtility of mechanifm is difplayed. Man, in his mechanical operations, is confined to the furface of bodies; but the operations of nature are exerted through the whole fubftance, fo as to reach even the elementary parts. Thus the body of an animal, and of a plant, are compofed of certain great veffels; thefe of fmaller; and thefe again of ftill fmaller, without end, as far as we can difcover. This power of diffufing mechanifm through the moft intimate parts, is peculiar to nature, and diftinguishes her operations, moft remarkably, from every work of art. Such texture, continued from the grofler parts to the most minute, preferves all along along the stricteft regularity: the fibres of plants are a bundle of cylindric canals, lying in the fame direction, and parallel or nearly parallel to each other in fome inftances, a most accurate arrangement of parts is difcovered, as in onions, formed of concentric coats, one within another, to the very centre. An animal body is ftill more admirable, in the difpofition of its internal parts, and in their order and fymmetry: there is not a bone, a muscle, a blood veffel, a nerve, that hath not one correfponding to it on the oppofite fide; and the fame order is car ried through the moft minute parts; the lungs, are compofed of two parts, which are difpofed, upon the fides of the thorax; and the kidneys, in a lower fituation, have a position no lefs orderly as to the parts that are fingle, the heart is advantageoufly fituated near the middle: the liver, ftomach, and spleen, are difpofed in the upper region of the abdomen, about the fame height: the bladder is placed in the middle of the body, as well as the inteftinal canal, which fills the whole cavity with its convolutions. The mechanical power of nature, not confined to fmall bodies, reacheth equally thofe of the greatest fize; witness the bodies that compofe the folar fyf tem, which, however large, are weighed, measured, and subjected to certain laws, with the utmost accura cy. Their places round the fun, with their distances, are determined by a precife rule, correfponding to their quantity of matter. The fuperior dignity of the central body, in refpect to its bulk and lucid ap pearance, is fuited to the place it occupies. The globular figure of thefe bodies, is not only in itfelf beautiful, but is above all others fitted for regular motion. Each planet revolves about its own axis in a given time; and each moves round the fun, in an orbit nearly circular, and in a time proportioned to its its diftance. Their velocities, directed by an established law, are perpetually changing by regular accelerations and retardations. In fine, the great variety of regular appearances, joined with the beauty of the fyftem itself, cannot fail to produce the highest delight in every one who is fenfible of defign, power, or beauty. - Nature hath a wonderful power of connecting fyftems with each other, and of propagating that connection through all her works. Thus the conftituent parts of a plant, the roots, the stem, the branches, the leaves, the fruit, are really different fyftems, united by a mutual dependence on each other: in an animal, the lymphatic and lacteal ducts, the bloodveffels and nerves, the muscles and glands, the bones and cartilages, the membranes and bowels, with the other organs, form diftin&t fystems, which are united into one whole. There are, at the fame time, other connections lefs intimate every plant is joined to the earth by its roots; it requires rain and dews to furnish it with juices; and it requires heat to preferve thefe juices in fluidity and motion: every animal, by its gravity, is connected with the earth, with the element in which it breathes, and with the fun, by deriving from it cherishing and enlivening heat: the earth furnisheth aliment to plants, these to animals, and these again to other animals, in a long train of dependence that the earth is part of a greater fyftem, comprehending many bodies mutually attracting each other, and gravitating all toward one common centre, is now thoroughly explored. Such a regu lar and uniform feries of connections, propagated through fo great a number of beings, and through fuch wide spaces is wonderful: and our wonder must increase when we obferve these connections propa gated gated from the minutest atoms to bodies of the most enormous fize, and fo widely diffused as that we can neither perceive their beginning nor their end. That thefe connections are not confined within our own planetary fyftem, is certain: they are diffuffed over fpaces ftill more remote, where new bodies and fyftems rife without end. All space is filled with the works of God, which are conducted by one plan, to anfwer unerringly one great end. But the most wonderful connection of all, though not the most confpicuous, is that of our internal frame with the works of nature: man is obviously fitted for contemplating thefe works, because in this contemplation he has great delight. The works of nature are remarkable in their uniformity no less · than in their variety: and the mind of man is fitted to receive pleasure equally from both. Uniformity and variety are interwoven in the works of nature with furprising art: variety, however great, is never without fome degree of uniformity; nor the greateft uniformity without fome degree of variety there is great variety in the fame plant, by the different ap pearances of its ftem, branches, leaves, bloffoms, fruit, fize, and colour; and yet, when we trace that variety through different plants, efpecially of the fame kind, there is difcovered a furprising uniformity: again, where nature feems to have intended the moft exact uniformity, as among individuals of the fame kind, there still appears a diverfity, which ferves readily to distinguish one individual from another. It is indeed admirable, that the human vifage, in which uniformity is fo prevalent, fhould yet be fo marked, as to leave no room, among millions, for mistaking one perfon for another: thefe marks, though clearly perceived, are generally fo delicate, that words cannot be found to defcribe them. A correfpondence fo perfect |