i8 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



cept thofe which muft happen according to the general laws of na- 

 ture, fuch as earthquakes, eruptions of burning mountains, and 

 inundations. 



In fliort, I think that the animal life of the brute is much happier 

 than our animal life (for 1 do not fpeak of our intcllcdual life) ; and 

 the reafon is plain, their animal life is governed, as I have faid, by 

 the wifdom of God, operating by what we call inJIiiiB, whereas our 

 animal life is governed by our imperfed intclleft. And here I 

 think we may pradife tlie advice which Job gives us : " To afk the 

 " beafls, and they ihall teach us ; and the fowls of the air, and they 

 " fliall tell us : Or fpeak to the earth, and it lliall teach us ; and the 

 " fiflies of the fea fhall declare unto us. Who knoweth not that in 

 " all thefe the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ? In whofe hand 

 " is the foul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind *." 



To thofe, who would defire to have more information concerning 

 the brute animals on this earth, I recommend an excellent book, be- 

 fore referred to, written upon the fubjed, Dr Derham's Pbyfico- 

 Theology^ wherein he has given wonderful examples of the wifdom 

 and goodnefs of God, in providing for the wants of the brute crea- 

 tion, even of the meaneft of them, and which we would call the 

 vileft. There is there to be found the beft proof which has hitherto 

 been publifhed, that what we call the world of Nature^ has been framed 

 and is governed by a wife and a good God : And natural philofophy 

 in that work is, I think, treated in the beft manner : For the author 

 does not enquire, as our naturalifts at prefent do, concerning the effi- 

 cient^ and what may be called the mechanical caufe, of natural opera- 

 tions, but concerning the y?««/ caufe of them, by which only the good- 

 nefs of God can be proved : And indeed a man, who ftudies only the 

 mechanifm of nature, I compare to a man who ftudies only the mo- 

 tions 

 * Job, Chap. XII. V. 7, 8, 9, ic. 



