6-8.xxx.

24-28.

fill up empty cantons, and unnecessary spaces:
in the most imperfect creatures, and such as
were not preserved in the ark, but, having their
seeds and principles in the womb of nature, are
everywhere, where the power of the sun is; *
in these is the wisdom of his hand discovered:
out of this rank Solomon chose the object of his Prov. vi.
admiration; indeed, what reason may not go to
school to the wisdom of bees, ants, and spiders?
what wise hand teacheth them to do what rea-
son cannot teach us? Ruder heads stand amazed
at those prodigious pieces of nature, whales, ele-
phants, dromedaries, and camels; these, I con-
fess, are the colossi and majestic pieces of her
hand: but in these narrow engines there is
more curious mathematics; and the civility of
these little citizens more neatly sets forth the
wisdom of their Maker. Who admires not
Regio-Montanus his fly beyond his eagle, or
wonders not more at the operation of two souls
in those little bodies, than but one in the trunk
of a cedar? I could never content my con-

* "Miraculous may seem to him that reades
So strange ensample of conception;
But reason teacheth that the fruitful seedes

Of all things living, thro' impression

Of the sun-beames in moyst complexion

Doe life conceive, and quick'ned are by kynd."

Faerie Queene.

† See Wordsworth's exquisite little poem entitled "Nutting,"

and Landor's Fæsulan Idyl:

Nature a

to all.

templation with those general pieces of wonder, the flux and reflux of the sea, the increase of the Nile, the conversion of the needle to the north; and have studied to match and parallel those in the more obvious and neglected pieces of nature, which without further travel I can do in the cosmography of myself: we carry with us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume.

XVI. Thus there are two books from whence Bible open I collect my divinity; besides that written one of God, another of his servant nature, that universal and public manuscript, that lies expansed unto the eyes of all: those that never saw him in the one, have discovered him in the other. This was the Scripture and Theology of the heathens: the natural motion of the sun made them more admire him than its supernatural

"And 't is and ever was my wish and way
To let all flowers live freely, and all die,
Whene'er their Genius bids their souls depart,
Among their kindred in their native place.
I never pluck the rose; the violet's head
Hath shaken with my breath upon its bank,
And not reproached me; the ever sacred cup
Of the pure lily hath between my hands
Felt safe, unsoiled, nor lost one grain of gold.”

18.

station did the children of Israel; the ordinary Josh. x. 12, effect of nature wrought more admiration in them, than in the other all his miracles: surely the heathens knew better how to join and read these mystical letters than we Christians, who cast a more careless eye on these common hieroglyphics, and disdain to suck divinity from the flowers of nature. Nor do I so forget God as to adore the name of nature; which I define not, with the schools, to be the principle of motion and rest, but that straight and regular line, that settled and constant course the wisdom of God hath ordained the actions of his creatures, according to their several kinds. To make a revolution every day, is the nature of the sun, because of that necessary course which God hath ordained it, from which it cannot swerve but by a faculty from that voice which first did give it motion.* Now this course of nature God seldom alters or perverts, but, like an excellent artist, hath so contrived his work, that with the selfsame instrument, without a new

* See Wordsworth's Ode to Duty:

"Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;

And the most ancient heavens thro' thee are fresh and strong."
Cf. Cowper's Task, bk. vi:-
:-

"Some say that in the origin of things,

When all creation started into birth,

The infant elements received a law

creation, he may effect his obscurest designs. Ex. xv. 25. Thus he sweeteneth the water with a wood, xxxviii. 5. preserveth the creatures in the ark, which the

Ecclus.

blast of his mouth might have as easily created; #for God is like a skilful geometrician, who when more easily, and with one stroke of his compass, he might describe or divide a right line, had yet rather do this in a circle or longer way, according to the constituted and forelaid principles of his art: yet this rule of his he doth sometimes pervert, to acquaint the world with his prerogative, lest the arrogancy of our reason should question his power, and conclude he could not. And thus I call the effects of nature the works of God, whose hand and instrument she only is ; and therefore to ascribe his actions unto her, is to devolve the honour of the principal agent the instrument; which if with reason we may do, then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writing. Nhold there is a general beauty in the works of God, and there

upon

From which they swerve not since. That under force
Of that controlling ordinance they move,

And need not his immediate hand who first
Prescribed their course, to regulate it now.

The Lord of all, himself through all diffused,
Sustains and is the life of all that lives.
Nature is but a name for an effect,

Whose cause is God."

xxxix. 33, 34.

18.

fore no deformity in any kind of species whatso- Ecclus. ever: I cannot tell by what logic we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly, they being created Wisd. xv. in those outward shapes and figures which best express those actions of their inward forms. And having passed that general visitation of God, who saw that all that he had made was good, that is, conformable to his will, which Gen. i. 31. abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and beauty; there is no deformity but in monstrosity, wherein notwithstanding there is a kind of beauty, nature so ingeniously contriving the irregular parts, that they become sometimes more remarkable than the principal fabric. To speak yet more narrowly, there was never any thing ugly or misshapen, but the chaos; wherein, notwithstanding, to speak strictly, there was no deformity, because no form, nor was it yet impregnate by the voice of God; now nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature, they being both servants of his providence: art is the perfection of nature: were the world now "Nature as it was the sixth day, there were yet a chaos; whereby nature hath made one world, and art another. God doth In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is govern the the art of God.

the art

world."

often false

XVII. This is the ordinary and open way of Providence his providence, which art and industry have in a good part discovered, whose effects we may Fortune.

ly called