no ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



As vegetables, and all things produced on this earth, are for the 

 life of animals, fo the number of animals muft be prodigious, much 

 greater than we can number ; for they are to be found every where, 

 inhabiting the earth, the air, and the water : And they are each of 

 them dircded by the wifdom and goodncfs of God, as fhall be fliown 

 in the fequel of this work, to live in the mod: proper way, fuitcd to 

 their nature, and to that part of the earth which they inhabit ; and 

 alfo to propagate their kind and rear their offspring, fo that the race 

 may be continued, and nothing be defedive in the fyftem of nature. 



Minerals alfo are of different kinds, which are diftinguiflied from 

 one another by different qualities. 



By the divifion into genufes and fpcciefes, all things here below 

 are fo arranged and diftributed as to be comprehenfible by our finite 

 capacities ; and in this way we can comprehend and diflinguifli, 

 from one another, the three kingdoms, as they are called, of this 

 earth, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral, and the feveral 

 fpeciefes under thefe. 



Thus, I think, I have (hown, that there is a wonderful number 

 of fyftems on this our earth ; Jirjl^ the fyftems of individuals, of 

 number incomprehenfible by us ; idly^ the fyftems of the loweft 

 fpeciefes comprehending thofe individuals; 3-^//, the genufes com- 

 prehending thofe low^eft fpeciefes ; and, lajlly^ the higher genufes 

 comprehending the lower; and fo rifmg above one another, till 

 they come to the higheft genufes, that is the Categories^ or Umverfcils 

 as they may be called : So that here we have fyftems rifing above 

 one another, and fo connedled, that the fame fyftem is a genus 

 with refpedt to thofe below it, and a fpecies with refped to thofe 

 above it. 



Thofe 



