Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/91

Rh upon this Globe of the Earth. Now if I can shew, that there are designs laid even in the lowest and vilest products of Nature that respect Man the highest of all, you cannot deny but that there is an Eye of Providence that respecteth all things, and passeth very swiftly from the Top to the Bottom, disposing all things wisely.

4. I therefore now demand, Man being of this nature that he is, whether these noble Faculties of his would not be lost and frustrate, were there not Materials to exercise them on. And in the second place, I desire to know, whether the rude confused Agitation of the particles of the Matter do certainly produce any such Materials fit for Man to exercise his skill on, or no: that is to say, whether there were any Necessity that could infallibly produce Quarries of Stone in the Earth, which are the chief Materials of all the Magnificent Structures of building in the world; and the same of Iron and Steel, without which there had been no use of these Stones; and then of Sea-Coal and other necessary Fewel, fit for the working or melting of these Metalls; and also of Timber-Trees, for all might have been as well brush-wood and shrubs, and then assuredly there had been no such convenient Shipping, whatever had become of other buildings: and so of the Load-stone, that great help to Navigation, whether it might not have lain so low in the Earth as never to have been reached by the industry of Man; and the same may be said also of other Stones and Metalls, that they being heaviest, might have lain lowest. Assuredly the agitated Matter, unless there were some special over-powering guidance over it, might as well have over slipt these necessary useful things as hit upon them: But if there had not been such a Creature as Man, these very things themselves had been useless, for none of the brute Beasts make use of such commodities. Wherefore unless a man will doe enormous violence to his Faculties, he must conclude, that there is a contrivance of Providence and Counsel in all those things, which reacheth from the beginning, to the end, and orders all things sweetly: and that Providence foreseeing what a kind of Creature she would make Man, provided him with materials from whence he might be able to adorn his present Age, and furnish History with the Records of egregious exploits both of Art and Valour.

5. But without the provision of the forenamed Materials, the Glory and Pomp both of War and Peace had been lost. For men in stead of those magnificent Buildings which are seen in the world, could have had no better kind of dwellings then a bigger sort of Bee-hives or Birds-nests, made of contemptible sticks, and straws, and durty morter. And in stead of the usual pomp and bravery of War, wherein is heard the solemn sound of the hoarse Trumpet, the contagious beating of the Drum, the neighing and pransing of the Horses, clattering of Armour, and the terrible thunder of Cannons; to say nothing of the glittering of the Sword and Spear, the waving and fluttering of displayed Colours, the gallantry of Charges upon their well-managed Steeds, and the like: I say, had it not been for the forenamed provision of Iron, Steel and Brass, and such like necessary Materials, in stead of all this glory and solemnity there had been nothing but howlings and shoutings of poor naked men, belabouring Rh