loo ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



them, which we know many blind men do. The firft fight he had of 

 this wonderful canopy of heaven, would affedt him with an enthufiafti- 

 cal admiration, lucii as no obje£t of this earth could produce in him. 



But nor only is our firmament, adorned as it is with fo many ce- 

 leftial lodes, the moll magnificent fpe£tacle that can be imagined, 

 bur il ib iiioft ufeful, and of abfolute neceflity, for carrying, on the 

 fyftem of nature in the world which we inhabit ; for it is by the lu-* 

 minaries of our fky that we enjoy the firft created, and the moll va- 

 luable thing in this world j I mean light. Our grand luminary is 

 the lun, which gives us light by day: But our planet has a fatcllite, 

 I mean the moon, which gives us light in the night, when we no 

 longer fee the fun. 



By the motion of the fun and moon we fet bounds to duration, 

 (by which I mean the continuation of the exiftence of things), and 

 meafure it, and make what we call timc^ which is duration mealur- 

 cd : For that can only be done by motion, and not by every 

 kind of motion ; but by motion, which is itfelf its own mea- 

 fure. Now that is only motion in a circle, or ellipfis, which revolves 

 into iifelf, and in that way meafures itlelf; which motion in a 

 ftraight line, or any other than the two motions I have mentioned, 

 cannot do. In that way, by the motion of cur earth round its axis, 

 we have that meafure of Time which we call Day, as diilinguifhed 

 from Night : By the motion of the moon round the earth we have 

 that meaiure of time we call a month ; and by the motion of our 

 earth round the fun we meafure a year. 



To t'^e um we owe not only the fucceflion of day and night 

 but of feafons, and the produclion and ripening of vegetables ac- 

 cording to their different kinds, and alfo the ^--eneration of animals 

 according to their different fpeciefes; which could not be, any more 



than 



