STUDY XII. 379 



more than to his reflective powers, that he is in- 

 debted for the conviction which he has of the ex- 

 iftence of God; for I fuppofe, that having, by- 

 means of his reafon, the faculty of perceiving the 

 correfpondencies which exift between the objects 

 of Nature, he found out the relations which fubfift 

 between an ifland and a tree, a tree and a fruit, a 

 fruit and his own wants ; he would readily feel 

 himfelf determined, on feeing an ifland, to look 

 for food upon it : but his reafon, in (hewing him 

 the links of four natural harmonies, would not re- 

 fer the caufe of them to an invifible Author, 

 unlefs he had the fentiment of it deeply imprefled 

 on his heart. Tt would flop fhort at the point 

 where his perceptions flopped, and where thofe of 

 animals terminate. A wolf which fhould fwim 

 over a river, in order to reach an ifland on which 

 he perceived grafs growing, in the hope of there 

 finding fheep likewife, has an equal conception of 

 the links which conned: the four natural relations 

 of the ifland, the grafs, the fheep, and his own 

 appetite : but he falls not down proflrate before 

 the intelligent Being who has eftablifhed them. 



Confidering Man as an animal, I know of no 

 one to be compared with him in refpect of wretch- 

 ednefs. Firfl of all, he is naked, expofed to in- 

 fects, to the wind, to the rain, to the heat, to the 

 cold, and laid under the neceffity, in all countries, 



of 



