Ocean would appear vaftly hollow and horrible from the top of a high Cloud: yet what a way of reasoning is this from the freaks of Imagination, and impoffible Suppofitions? Is the Sea ever likely to be evaporated by the Sun, or to be emptied with Buckets? Why then must we fancy this impoffible dryness; and then upon that fictitious account calumniate Nature, as deformed and ruinous and unworthy of a Divine Author? Is there then any physical deformity in the Fabric of a Human Body; because our Imagination can ftrip it of its Muscles and Skin, and shew us the fcragged and knotty Backbone, the gaping and ghaftly Jaws, and all the Sceleton underneath? We have fhewed before, that the Sea could not be much narrower than it is, without a great loss to the World: and muft we now have an Ocean of mere Flats and Shallows, to the utter ruin of Navigation; for fear our heads fhould turn giddy at the imagination of gaping Abyffes and unfathomable Gulfs? But however the Sea-fhores at least should have been even and uniform, not crooked and broken as they are into innumerable Angles and Creeks and In-lets and Bays, without Beauty or Order, which carry the Marks more of Chance and Confufion, than of the production of a wife Creator. This would be a fine bargain indeed; to part with all our commodious Ports

and

and Harbours, which the greater the In-let is, are fo much the better, for the imaginary pleasure of an open and ftreight Shore without any retreat or fhelter from the Winds; which would make the Sea of no ufe at all as to Navigation and Commerce. But what apology can we make for the horrid deformity of Rocks and Crags, of naked and broken Cliffs, of long Ridges, of barren Mountains; in the convenienteft Latitudes for Habitation and Fertility, could those rude heaps of Rubbish and Ruins be removed out of the way? We have one general and fufficient answer for all feeming defects or disorders in the constitution of Land or Sea; that we do not contend to have the Earth pass for a Paradise, or to make a very Heaven of our Globe, we reckon it only as the Land of our peregrination, and aspire after a better, Heb. 11. and a cæleftial Country. 'Tis enough, if it be fo framed and conftituted, that by a carefull Contemplation of it we have great reason to acknowledge and adore the Divine Wisdom and Benignity of its Author. But to wave this general Reply; let the Objectors confider, that these suppofed irregularities must have neceffarily come to pass from the establish'd Laws of Mechanism and the ordinary course of Nature. For supposing the Existence of Sea and Mountains; if the Banks of that Sea must never be jagged and torn by the impe

E 2

Gen. 1.

impetuous affaults or the filent underminings of Waves; if violent Rains and Tempests must not wash down the Earth and Gravel from the tops of fome of thofe Mountains, and expose their naked Ribbs to the face of the Sun; if the Seeds of fubterraneous Minerals must not ferment, and fometimes caufe Earthquakes and furious eruptions of Volcano's, and tumble down broken Rocks, and lay them in confufion: then either all things must have been over-ruled miraculously by the immediate interpofition of God without any mechanical Affections or fettled Laws of Nature, or else the body of the Earth must have been as fixed as Gold or as hard as Adamant and wholly unfit for Our habitation. So that if it was good in the fight of God, that the prefent Plants and Animals, and Human Souls united to Flesh and Blood fhould be upon this Earth under a settled conftitution of Nature: these fuppofed Inconveniences, as they were foreseen and permitted by the Author of that Nature, as neceffary consequences of fuch a conftitution; fo they cannot inferr the leaft imperfection in his Wisdom and Goodness. And to murmure at them is as unreasonable, as to complain that he hath made us Men and not Angels, that he hath placed us upon this Planet, and not upon fome other in this or another System which may be thought better than Ours. Let them

alfo

alfo confider, that this objected Deformity is in our Imaginations only, and not really in the Things themfelves. There is no Univerfal Reafon (I mean fuch as is not confined to Human Fancy, but will reach through the whole Intellectual Universe) that a Figure by us called Regular, which hath equal Sides and Angles, is absolutely more beautifull than any irregular one. All Pulchritude is relative; and all Bodies are truly and phyfically beautifull under all poffible Shapes and Proportions; that are good in. their Kind, that are fit for their proper uses and ends of their Natures. We ought not then to believe, that the Banks of the Ocean are really deformed, because they have not the form of a regular Bulwark; nor that the Mountains are mishapen, because they are not exact Pyramids or Cones; nor that the Starrs are unskilfully placed, because they are not all fituated at uniform diftances. These are not Natural Irregularities, but with respect to our Fancies only; nor are they incommodious to the true Ufes of Life and the Defigns of Man's Being on the Earth. Let them confider, that thefe Ranges of barren Moun+ tains by condenfing the Vapors and producing Rains and Fountains and Rivers, give the very Plains and Valleys themselves that Fertility they boaft of. Let them confider, that thofe Hills

and

and Mountains fupply Us and the Stock of Nature with a great variety of excellent Plants. If there were no inequalities in the Surface of the Earth, nor in the Seafons of the Year; we should lofe a confiderable fhare of the Vegetable Kingdom: for all Plants will not grow in an uniform Level and the fame temper of Soil, nor with the fame degree of Heat. Let them confider, that to those Hills and Mountains we are obliged for all our Metals, and with them for all the conveniencies and comforts of Life. To deprive us of Metals is to make us mere Savages; to change our Corn or Rice for the old Arcadian Diet, our Houses and Cities for Dens and Caves, and our Cloathing for Skins of Beafts: 'tis to bereave us of all Arts and Sciences, of History and Letters, nay of Revealed Religion too that ineftimable favour of Heaven, by making the whole Gospel a mere Tradition and old Cabala without certainty, without authority. Who would part with these Solid and Substantial Blesfings for the little fantastical pleasantness of a smooth uniform Convexity and Rotundity of a Globe? And yet the misfortune of it is, that the pleasant View of this imaginary Globe, as well as the deformed Spectacle of the true one, is founded upon impoffible Suppofitions. For this equal Convexity could never be feen and enjoyed by any

man