Chap. III. ANTIEKT METAPHYSICS. 321 



and by our microfcopes we have dlfcovercd an infinite number of 

 fmall animals, altogether invifible to the naked eye, and fuch as \vc 

 could not have believed poflible to exirt; if we had not feen them ; 

 and which confirms what Arlflotle has told us, that -whatever is pof- 

 fihle to exijiy does aElually cx'ijh At the farne time thofe animals, 

 miferable and contemptible as we fliould think them, are fo amply 

 provided with every thing neceffary for their lubfiftence, that they 

 are as happy as their nature or the order and fubordination of things 

 in the univerfe will admit ; fo that they furniili a proof of the 

 goodnefs, as well as of the power and intelligence of God. The 

 anticnts thought that an atheift among them was a man void of all 

 undcrftanding ; but how much more muft'he be fo now, when fuch 

 new fcenes ot Nature's works are opened to him ? Indeed I think a 

 man, who cannot difcover, in fo enlarged a profpedl of the works of 

 God, the marks of fupreme intelligence and goodnefs, muft not 

 have in his nature either intelligence or goodnefs, and confcquently 

 is not a man. 



It is with the greatefl: propriety of language therefore that Dcr- 

 ham has entitled this work Pbyllco-Theology^ as it is no Icfs an tx- 

 coWcnX. pbyfical -wox];., than an admirable work of theology, wherein 

 he has demonftrated that prime attribute of God, his goodnefs, fo 

 effential to his nature that Plato calls Iiim the to ayaOov, or goodnefs 

 itfclj\ which Derham fhows extends to every animal, eyen to thofc, 

 as 1 have faid, that we fhould think the moft contemptible and moft 

 miferable. 



Upon the whole, I hope I have fhown that all the animals of this 

 earth are as..happy as by their nature they can be, without except- 

 ing even man. This I know will appear to many of my readers a 

 very extraordinary propcfuion . But they fhould eonfider that man 

 by his fall has made to himfelf a new nature, very much lefs perfect 

 Vol. VI. . S s than 



