sea, which seems to divide the inhabitants of the world from each other, keeps up an intercourse more effectually between the most distant parts of the globe. Mankind are likewise abundantly fed by the waters of the sea; wherein the creatures of God multiply in a much greater proportion than by land, and are all maintained without the cost or attendance of man they are a singular flock, which have no shepherd but the Creator himself, who conducts them, at different seasons, in unmeasureable shoals, to supply the world with nourisliment.

From this hasty survey of the earth, we cannot but bé struck with the many ends which are answered by the generation of the earth from the waters of the sea, although we have considered but a part of them.

When we examine the substance or matter of the earth, we find all things useful, all administering in various ways to our support and convenience. Even the very dirt we tread upon is a compost of rich principles, which supply the necessary nourishment to plants: and when particles from an offensive putrid mass of earthy matter are diffused, through the frame of a vegetable, they put on an appearance of beauty, which is dazzling to the

eyes,

eyes, and emit a fragrance, which is ravishing to the sense. If such a thing had not yet been, and we were told that it would be, mortals affecting wisdom would have signified their doubts; as when it was questioned what the rising from the dead should mean.

Below the surface of the earth, we find the various sorts of stones; the ores of metals and minerals; and the stones which are called precious, from their beauty and rarity. The common uses of stone in building, and the several degrees of them, from the coarsest rock to the finest marble, are well known: but still, the situation of stone, as it lies in the earth, with the property of that stone which is most ordinary, are worthy of particular consideration. Beds of stone, as they lie in the quarry, are parted here and there with perpendicular cracks, by means of which the largest masses become accessible, and subject to such forces as will separate and raise them up; and unless the beds of stone had been thus naturally parted, all the art of man would have been insufficient to extract stones from the earth, for the common uses of life. Some are of such a grain that they will split like wood, and may be shivered, even without a tool, into thin plates, by the force of the weather.

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weather. But wonderful above all is the property of the limestone; which, when its native moisture is totally expelled by fire, imbibes water with such force that it falls into an impalpable powder, and forms a cement, by which separate stones are indissolubly joined into one body and it holds them together more firmly at the end of a thousand years than it did at first. This is a discovery of such importance in the art of building, that it is probably as ancient as the art itself. The use of stone and mortar is spoken of as known before the building of Babel: and how it could be found out, doth not appear; because, I think, there is no operation in the common course of nature which could lead to it.

It would answer no purpose here to recount the various sorts of opaque stones; some curious for their beauty, others excellent for their use. The flint enables us to produce fire, of which no creature but man hath the use and management. The fiercest of wild beasts fly from the sight with terror; and dread that fire which is kindled by man, as man himself dreads the fire of lightning which is sent from heaven.

In regard to the common stones of the earth, there is a certain fact which must excite the curiosity of those who attend to it. Of the pebble kinds, the greater part are formed out of fragments of stone, spar, and marble rounded by trituration in water; of which kind millions are agitated to and fro, and worn by the motion of the tides upon the shores of the sea. The inland parts of the earth, to the greatest depths, contain these pebbles; which, being the production of the sea, could never have been formed where they are found, and must, therefore, have been originally lodged by water in places which are now remote from the sea. The same may be said of an immense quantity of sand, which, though it is now lying in dry beds of earth, has the certain marks of trituration by water.

Metals and minerals, which are the more valuable productions of the earth, are, in form and appearance, but another kind of stones; under which name they are mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy; where Moses commends the promised land to the people, as a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills they might dig brass; not in the form of brass, but of stones, out of which brass might be extracted, and compounded by the labour

of man, and the rules of art. All the treasures of the earth are found in an imperfect state, which calls for the arts of chemistry, and makes work for the fires of the refiner; but, when due pains have been bestowed upon them, then we discover what a pure and splendid nature is given to them by the Creator. Who would think, that burnished gold, and polished steel, should have been in an obscure state, like the stones of the earth? The mind of man, improved by education, is just as different from the same mind in the state of .nature.

Such is the richness and brightness of the several kinds of metals, that it hath been the custom with men, from time immemorial, to give to the metals of the earth the same names as to the lights of heaven, according to their colour and their dignity. Gold is allied to the sun, from its yellow colour, and its splendor; silver to the moon, from its whiteness, and as being next in dignity to the

sun.

Mercury or quicksilver takes its name from the planet nearest to the sun; copper from the planet next in order: iron, tin, and lead, were given to the remaining planets more remote from the sun.

The