operation of two souls in those little bodies
than but one in the trunk of a cedar? I
could never content my contemplation with
those general pieces of wonder, the flux and
reflux of the sea, the increase of Nile, the
conversion of the needle to the north; and
have studied to match and parallel those in
the more obvious and neglected pieces of
nature which, without further travel, I can do
in the cosmography of myself.
We carry

with us the wonders we seek without us:
there is all Africa and her prodigies in us.
We are that bold and adventurous piece of
nature, which he that studies, wisely learns
in a compendium what others labour at in a
divided piece and endless volume.

Nature a

Bible open

all.

XVI. Thus there are two books from whence I collect my divinity. Besides that written one of God, another of his servant, nature, that universal and publick manuscript, that lies expansed unto the eyes of all. Those that never saw him in the one have discovered him in the other: this was the Scripture and Theology of the heathens; the natural motion of the sun made them more admire him than its supernatural station did the children of Israel. The ordinary effect of nature wrought Josh. x. 12, more admiration in them than, in the other, 13. all his miracles. Surely the heathens knew better how to join and read these mystical letters than we Christians, who cast a more careless eye on these common hieroglyphicks, and disdain to suck divinity from the flowers

Königsberg, made a mechanical iron fly and wooden eagle, both of which were able to fly.

of nature. Nor do I so forget God as to adore the name nature; which I define not, with the schools, the principle of motion and rest, but, that straight and regular line, that settled and constant course the wisdom of God hath ordained the actions of his creatures, according to their several kinds. To make a revolution every day is the nature of the sun, because of that necessary course which God hath ordained it, from which it cannot swerve but by a faculty from that voice which first did give it motion. Now this course of nature God seldom alters or perverts; but, like an excellent artist, hath so contrived his work, that with the self-same instrument, without a new creation, he may effect his obscurest Ex. xv. 25. designs. Thus he sweeteneth the water with a wood, preserveth the creatures in the ark, which the blast of his mouth might have as easily created; for God is like a skilful. geometrician, who, when more easily, and with one stroke of his compass, he might describe or divide a right line, had yet rather do this in a circle or longer way, according to the constituted and forelaid principles of his art: yet this rule of his he doth sometimes pervert, to acquaint the world with his prerogative, lest the arrogancy of our reason should question his power, and conIclude he could not. And thus I call the effects of nature the works of God, whose hand and instrument she only is; and therefore to ascribe his actions unto her, is to devolve the honour of the principal agent upon the instrument; which if with

Ecclus xxxviii. 5.

xxxix. 33, 34. Wisd. xv. 18.

reason we may do, then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writings. I hold there is a general beauty in the works of God, and therefore no deformity in any Ecclus. kind or species of creature whatsoever. I cannot tell by what logick we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly; they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express the actions of their inward forms; and having past that general visitation of God, Gen. i. 31. who saw that all that he had made was good, that is, conformable to his will, which abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and beauty. There is no deformity but in monstrosity; wherein, notwithstanding, there is a kind of beauty; nature so ingeniously contriving the irregular parts as they become sometimes more remarkable than the principal fabrick. To speak yet more narrowly, there was never any thing ugly or mis-shapen but the chaos; wherein, notwithstanding, to speak strictly, there was no deformity, because no form; nor was it yet impregnate by the voice of God. Now, nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they being both the servants of his providence. Art is the perfection of 'Nature the art whereby nature. Were the world now as it was the God doth sixth day, there were yet a chaos. Nature govern the hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is the art of God.

XVII. This is the ordinary and open way of his providence, which art and industry have in a good part discovered; whose effects we

world.'

Providence

called

Fortune.

may

foretell without an oracle. To foreshow often falsely these is not prophecy, but prognostication. There is another way, full of meanders and labyrinths, whereof the devil and spirits have no exact ephemerides: and that is a more particular and obscure method of his providence; directing the operations of individuals and single essences: this we call fortune; that serpentine and crooked line, whereby he draws those actions his wisdom intends in a more unknown and secret way. This cryptick and involved method of his providence have I ever admired; nor can I relate the history of my life, the occurrences of my days, the escapes of dangers, and hits of chance, with a bezo las manos to Fortune, or a bare gramercy to my Gen. xxii. 13. good stars. Abraham might have thought the ram in the thicket came thither by accident: human reason would have said that mere chance conveyed Moses in the ark to the sight of Pharaoh's daughter. What a labyrinth is Gen. xxxvii. there in the story of Joseph, able to convert a stoick. Surely there are in every man's life certain rubs, doublings, and wrenches, which pass a while under the effects of chance; but at the last, well examined, prove the mere -hand of God. 'Twas not dumb chance that, to discover the fougade, or powder plot, contrived a miscarriage in the letter. I like the victory of '88 the better for that one occurrence which our enemies imputed to our dishonour and the partiality of fortune; to wit, the tempests and contrariety of winds. King Philip did not detract from the nation, when he said, he sent his armada to fight with men,

Ex. ii. 3.

Where

and not to combat with the winds. there is a manifest disproportion between the powers and forces of two several agents, upon a maxim of reason we may promise the victory to the superior: but when unexpected accidents slip in, and unthought-of occurrences intervene, these must proceed from a power that owes no obedience to those axioms; where, as in the writing upon the wall, we Dan. v. 5. may behold the hand, but see not the spring that moves it. The success of that petty province of Holland (of which the Grand Seignior proudly said,If they should trouble him, as they did the Spaniard, he would send his men with shovels and pickaxes, and throw it into the sea') I cannot altogether ascribe to the ingenuity and industry of the people, but to the mercy of God, that hath disposed them to such a thriving genius; and to the will of his providence, that disposeth her favour to each country in their preordinate season. All cannot be happy at once; for, because the glory of one state depends upon the ruin of another, there is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness, and must obey the swing of that wheel not moved by intelligences, but by the hand of God, whereby all estates arise to their zenith and vertical points, according to their predestinated periods. For the lives, not only of men, but of commonweals and the whole world, run not upon an helix that still enlargeth; but on a circle, where, arriving to their meridian, they decline in obscurity, and fall under the horizon again.

XVIII. These must not therefore be named