In the foregoing Book having dispatch’d the Out-works, let us take a Survey of the Principal Fabrick, viz. the Terraqueous Globe it self; a most stupendious Work in every particular of it, which doth no less aggrandize its Maker[a], than every curious, complete Work, doth its Workman. Let us cast our Eyes here and there, let us ransack all the Globe, let us with the greatest Accuracy inspect every part thereof, search out the inmost Secrets of any of the Creatures; let us examine them with all our Gauges, measure them with our nicest Rules, pry into them with our Microscopes, and most exquisite Instruments[b] still we find them to bear Testimony to their infinite Workman; and that they exceed all humane Skill so far, as that the most exquisite Copies and Imitations of the best Artists, are no other than rude bungling Pieces to them. And so far are we from being able to espy any Defect or Fault in them, that the better we know them, the more we admire them; and the farther we see into them, the more exquisite we find them to be.
And for a Demonstration of this; I shall,
I. Take a general Prospect of the Terraqueous Globe.
II. Survey its Particulars.
I. The Things which will fall under a general Prospect of the Globe, will be its Figure, Bulk, Motion, Place, Distribution into Earth and Waters, and the great Variety of all Things upon it and in it.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] Licet——oculis quodammodo contemplari pulchritudinem earum rerum, quas Divinâ Providentiâ dicimus constitutas. Ac principio Terra universa cernatur, locata in media mundi sede, solida, & globosa——vestita floribus, herbis, arboribus, frugibus. Quorum omnium incredibilis multitudo, insatiabili varietate distinguitur. Adde huc Fontium gelidas perennitates, liquores perlucidos Amnium, Riparum vestitus viridissimos, Speluncarum concavas altitudines, Saxorum asperitates, impendentium Montium altitudines, immensitatesque Camporum: Adde etiam reconditas Auri——venas——Qua verò, & quàm varia genera Bestiarum?——Qui Volucrum lapsus, atque cantus? Qui Pecudum pastus?——Quid de Hominum genere dicam? Qui quasi cultores terra constituti, &c.——Qua si, ut animis, sic oculis videre possemus, nemo cunctam intuens terram, de Divinâ Ratione dubitaret. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 39.
[b] I cannot here omit the Observations that have been made in these later Times, since we have had the Use and Improvement of the Microscope, concerning the great Difference, which by the help of that, doth appear betwixt Natural and Artificial Things. Whatever is Natural, doth by that appear adorned with all imaginable Elegance and Beauty.——Whereas the most curious Works of Art, the sharpest, finest Needle doth appear as a blunt, rough Bar of Iron, coming from the Furnace or the Forge. The most accurate Engravings or Embossments seem such rude, bungling, deformed Works, as if they had been done with a Mattock, or a Trowel. So vast a Difference is there betwixt the Skill of Nature, and the Rudeness and Imperfection of Art. Bp. Wilk. Nat. Rel. L. 1. Ch. 6.