Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/142

 throat or your father's dropsy? 3. The question is whether man was designed to performe the things which he performeth, or whether he performeth by the same necessity of his fabrick and constitution, wherewith fire burneth. My medium or organ of the "Scale of Creatures" doth not wholly remove these difficulties; but it doth sufficiently humble Man, and check the insolent scepticisms, which do now pester the world; and is a good caution against the slighting religion and the practise of good men; and as for the other grand point, men take too much pains to prove it; for it is necessary that there should be a First and Universale Cause of all things, by whose designe and according to whose idea all other things must be made, and we may feele the blessings of the incomprehensible Being, altho' we do not see it; as blind men may be comforted by the warmth of the fire. Abyssus abyssum invocat. Wherefore let us returne to wish well unto and do well for one another. I hope when our case of clay is broaken by Naturale Death, wee shall no longer peep thro' its creaks and cranyes, but then looke round about us freely, and see clearly the things which wee now do but grope after....'

But Sir William had not got far in this opus magnum before he began to realise that his theology might raise up even more enemies against him than his transactions in Irish land, although the Court of High Commission no longer existed and the Inquisition had no jurisdiction in England. 'The "Scale of Creatures" goes on,' he tells Southwell, 'but will produce only more mischief against mee. There will be many things in it the world cannot bear, and for which I shall suffer. But suppose all were transcendently well, what shall I get by it but more envy?' So reflection after a time brought discretion, and 'The Scale,' even if completed, was never published. The only relic of it is a syllabus of what 'The Scale' was intended to contain. The work itself is not extant.