STUDY X. 



93 



placed in elevated atmofpheres, in the centre of 

 mountains, where they are not liable to corruption 

 from the action of the heat ; but the plains and 

 low grounds are wafhed by the greateft currents 

 of living water that are in the World, fuch as the 

 Zara, the Senegal, the Nile, the Mechaffippi, the 

 Oroonoko, the Amazon, and others. 



Nature propofes to herfelf, univerfally, only the 

 accommodation of beings poffefTed of fenfibility. 

 This remark is all-important in the ftudy of her 

 Works ; othervvife, from the fimilitude of the 

 means which (he employs : or the exceptions from 

 them, we might be tempted to doubt of the con- 

 fiftency of her Laws, inftead of afcribing the ma- 

 jeftic obfcurity which pervades them, to the mul- 

 tiplicity of her refources, and to the profundity of 

 our own ignorance. 



! This Law of adaptation and conformity has been 

 the fource of all our difcoveries. It was this 

 which wafted Chrijlopher Columbus to America ; be- 

 caufe as Herrera tells us *, he thought, contrary 

 to the opinion of the Ancients, that the whole five 

 Zones mull be inhabited, as GOD had not formed 

 the Earth to be a defert. It is this Law which re- 

 gulates our ideas refpe&ing. objeds absolutely be- 



* Hznercfi Hiftory of the Weft-Indies. Book i. chap. 2. 



yond 



