Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/101

Rh Physick and Food, and then pass on to the consideration of Animals. And as tor their Medicinal uses, the large Herbals that are every where to be had are so ample Testimonies thereof, that I have said enough in but reminding you of them. That which is most observable here is this that brute Beasts have some share in their virtue as well as Men. For the Toad being overcharged with the poison of the Spider, as is ordinarily believed, hath recourse to the Plantane leaf: the Weasel, when she is to encounter the Serpent, arms her self with eating of Rue: the Dog, when he is sick at the stomach, knows his cure, falls to his Grass, vomits, and is well: the 'Swallows make use of Celandine, the Linnet of Euphragia, for the repairing of their sight: and the Asse, when he is oppress'd with Melancholy, eats of the herb Asplenium or Miltwaste, and so eases himself of the swelling of the Spleen. And Virgil reports of the Dictamnum Cretense or Cretian Dittany, that the wild Goats eat it when they are shot with darts or arrows; for that Herb has the virtue to work them out of their body, and to heal up the wound.

Which things I conceive no obscure indigitation of Providence: For they doing that by Instinct and Nature which men, who have free Reason, cannot but acknowledge to be very pertinent and fitting; nay, such that the skilfullest Physician will approve and allow; and these Creatures having no such reason and skill themselves as to turn Physicians; it must needs be concluded, that they are inabled to doe these things by virtue of that Principle that contrived them, and made them of that nature they are, and that that Principle therefore must have Skill and Knowledge, that is, that it must be God.

3. We come now to the consideration of Plants as they afford Food both to Man and Beasts. And here we may observe, That as there was a general provision of Water, by setting the Mountains and Hills abroach, from whence through the Spring-heads and continued Rivulets drawn together (that caused afterwards greater Rivers with the long winding distributions of them) all the Creatures of the Earth quench their thirst: so Divine Providence has spred her Table every where, not with a juiceless green Carpet, but with succulent Herbage and nourishing Grass, upon which most of the Beasts of the field do feed; and they that feed not on it, feed on those that eat it, and so the generations of them all are continued.

4. But this seeming rather necessary then of choice, I will not insist upon it. For I grant that Counsel most properly is there imply'd, where we discern a variety and possibility of being otherwise, and yet the Best is made choice of. Therefore I will onely intimate thus much, That though it were necessary that some such thing as Grass should be, if there were such and such creatures in the world; yet it was not at all necessary that Grass and Herbs should have that Colour which they have; for they might have been red, or white, or some such Colour which would have been very offensive and hurtful to our sight. But I will not insist upon Rh