Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/107

Rh parts in all. For neither are all men and women exquisitely handsome, indeed very few, that they that are may raise the greater admiration in the minds of men, and quicken their natural abilities to brave adventures either of Valour or Poetry: But as for the brute Creatures, though some of them be of an hateful aspect, as the Toad, the Swine, and the Rat; yet these are but like Discords in Musick, to make the succeeding chord goe off more pleasantly; as indeed most of those momentany Inconveniences that the life of Man ever and anon meets withall, they do put but a greater edge and vigour upon his Enjoyments.

2. But it is not hard to find very many Creatures that are either καλὰ χρήματα, or ἀστεῖα, as the Philosopher distinguishes, that are either very goodly things and beautiful, or at least elegant and pretty; as most of your Birds are. But for Stateliness & Majestie, what is comparable to a Horse? whether you look upon him single, with his Mane and his Tail waving in the wind, and hear him coursing and neighing in the pastures; or whether you see him with some gallant Heros on his back, performing gracefully his usefull postures, and practising his exploits of War; who can withhold from concluding that a Providence brought these two together, that are fitted so well to each other, that they seem but one compleat Spectacle of Nature? which imposed upon the rude people near Thessaly, and gave the occasion of the fabulous Centaurs, as if they had been one living Creature made up of Horse and Man.

3. That which I drive at is this, There being that Goodliness in the bodies of Animals, as in the Ox, Grey-hound and Stag; or that Majestie and Stateliness, as in the Lion, the Horse, the Eagle and Cock; or that grave Awfulness, as in your best breed of Mastiffs; or Elegancy and Prettiness, as in your lesser Dogs, and most sorts of Birds; all which are several Modes of Beauty, and Beauty being an intellectual Object, as Symmetry and Proportion is (which I proved sufficiently in what I spake concerning the Beauty of Plants:) That which naturally follows from all this is, That the Author or Original of these Creatures which are deemed beautiful, must himself be Intellectual, he having contrived so grateful Objects to the Mind or Intellect of Man.

4. After their Beauty, let us touch upon their Birth or manner of Propagation. And here I appeal to any man, whether the contrivance of Male and Female in living Creatures be not a genuine Effect of Wisdom and Counsel; for it is notoriously obvious that these are made one for the other, and both for the continuation of the Species. For though we should admit, with Cardan and other Naturalists, That the Earth at first brought forth all manner of Animals as well as Plants, and that they might be fastned by the Navel to their common Mother the Earth, as they are now to the Female in the Womb; yet we see she is grown steril and barren, and her births of Animals are now very inconsiderable. Wherefore what can it be but a Providence, that whiles she did bear she sent out Male and Female, that when her own Prolifick virtue was wasted, yet she might be a dry-Nurse, or an officious Grand-mother, to thousands of generations? And I say it is Providence, not Chance, nor Necessity; for what is there imaginable in the parts of the Matter, that Rh