Chap.VI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 109 



God, that is, to know our/elves^ we not only lay the foundation of 

 all inferior fciences, but we may rife to the fummit of all fcience, 

 the knowledge of God ; fo far as he can be comprehended by our 

 limited capacity. 



And here, I think, we cannot fufficiently admire the wifdom and 

 goodnefs of God, who has fo formed us, that by the (ludy of our- 

 felves, that is by confcioufnefs, the moft certain of all knowledge, 

 we can attain all the knowledge that it is pofTible we can attain in 

 this life, and fo prepare ourfelves for a better life to come, in which 

 we are to attain to the greatefl: perfedion that our nature is capa- 

 ble of. 



This compofition, of body and fo many minds, m?kes man the 

 mod various and mod curious animal upon this earth, and v;hen 

 we join to that his progrei's through fo many diffprent ftates, the 

 moft wonderful animal, and which fliould be the ftudy of every 

 man who loves knowledge, if we were not fo much connected with 

 him as we are *. 



But there are very many other fpeciefes of animals on this earth 

 befides man, more, 1 believe, than have been nutubered ; and each 

 of ihefe fpeciefes is a fyftem; and fo is alfo every individual of thefe 

 fpeciefes : So that not only as many as there are of Ipeciefes, but as 

 many as there are of indi-vidual animals, fo many there are of fyf- 

 tems; For every anatomift knows, that each individual animal is a 

 fyftem ; and the fame is the cafe of vegetables : So that the divi- 

 fion of all things in the univerfe, into fyftems, ftill goes on with re- 

 fpedl to animals and vegetables ; and therefore, as I have faid, the 

 univerfe is a fyftem of iyftems of various kinds. 



As 

 * Sfc \vhr,t I have f.iiil on this fubjc<fl at the end of lafl vol. 



