Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/92

50 one another with snag'd sticks, or dully falling together by the ears at Fisti-cuffs.

6. besides this, Beasts being naturally armed, and men naturally unarmed with any thing save their Reason, and Reason being ineffectual having no materials to work upon; it is plain, that that which made Men, Beasts and Metalls, knew what it did, and did not forget it self in leaving Man destitute of natural Armature, having provided Materials, and giving him wit and abilities to arm himself, and so to be able to make his party good against the most fierce and stoutest of all living Creatures whatsoever; nay indeed, left him unarmed on purpose,that he might arm himself, and exercise his natural wit and industry.

 

1. Distinction of Land and Sea not without a Providence. 2. As also the Consistence of the Sea-Water that it can bear Ships. 3. The great convenience and pleasure of Navigation. 4. The admirable train of fit Provisions in Nature for the gratifying the Wit of man in so concerning a Curiosity.

Aving thus passed over the Hills, and through the Woods & hollow Entrails of the Earth, let us now view the wide Sea also, and see whether that do not inform us that there is a God; that is, whether things be not there in such fort as a rational Principle would either order or approve, whenas yet notwithstanding they might have been otherwise. And now we are come to view those Campos natantes, as Lucretius calls them, that vast Champain of Water, the Ocean; I demand first, Whether it might not have been wider then it is, even so large as to over-spred the face of the whole Earth, and so to have taken away the habitation of Men and Beasts. For the wet particles might have easily ever mingled with the dry, and so all had either been Sea or Quag-mire.

2. And then again, though this distinction of Land and Sea be made, Whether this watry Element might not have fallen out to be of so thin a consistency as that it would not bear Shipping; for it is so far from impossibility, as there be de facto in Nature such waters, as the River Silas, for example, in India. And the waters of Borysthenes are so thin and light, that they are said to swim upon the top of the Stream of the River Hypanis. And we know there is some kind of wood so heavy that it will sink in any ordinary kind of water.

I appeal therefore to any mans reason, whether it be not better that there should be a distinction of Land and Sea, then that all should be mire or water; and whether it be not better that the Timber-trees afford wood so light that it swim on the water, or the water be so heavy that it will bear up the wood, then the contrary. That therefore which might have been otherwise, and yet is settled according to our own hearts wish, who 