STUDY I. 43 



pile ; and I have given to thefc ruins the name of 

 Studies, as a Painter does to the fludies of a great 

 original, to which he was unable to give a finifliing. 



Amidfl this diforder, it was necelTary, however, 

 to adopt fomething like method, without which, 

 the confufion of the matter muft have ftill more 

 increafed the infufficiency of the Author. I have 

 followed the moft fimple. Firft, I endeavour to 

 refute the objeftions raifed againft a Providence; 

 I, then, proceed to examine into the exiftence of 

 certain fentiments, which are common to all men, 

 and which conftrain us to acknowledge, in all the 

 works of Nature, the laws of her wifdom and 

 goodnefs ; and, finally, I make application of 

 thefe laws to the Globe, to Plants, to Animals, and 

 to Man. 



Such, from the outfet, is the manner in which 

 I propofe to direct my courfe. If, in the rapid 

 fketch I am going to prefent of it, the Reader 

 fhould be difgufted with its drinefs, I muft intreat 

 him to refled, that the fame complaint muft lie 

 againft all abridgments ; that, in return, I fpare 

 him the fatigue of a preface ; and that Pliny, who 

 had a much better head than mine, has not he- 

 fitated to make up the firft book of his Natural 

 Hiftory, of the bare tides of the Chapters which 

 compofe it. 



I {M, 



