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particles of earth and water proper for their own 

 growth ; how they form them at first into their own 

 shapes, and send them up aspiring above ground by 

 degrees, and mould them so as to frame the stalks, 

 the branches, the leaves, 'and the buds of every flower 

 herb, and tree. But I presume the world is too 

 weary of substantial forms, and plastic powers, to 

 be persuaded that these mere creatures of fancy should 

 be the operators in this wondrous work. It is mueh 

 more honourable to attribute all to the design and 

 forethought of God, who formed the first vegetables 

 in such a manner, and appointed their little parts to 

 ferment under the warm sun. beams, according to 

 such established laws of motion, as to mould the 

 atoms of earth and water which were near them 

 into their own figure, to make them grow up into 

 trunk and branches, which every night should 

 harden into firmness and stability and again, to 

 mould new atoms of the same element into leaves 

 and bloom, fruit and seed, which last being dropt into 

 the earth, should produce new plants of the same 

 likeness to the end of the world. 



It is easier for the sons of men to stand and won. 

 <Jer, and adore God the Creator, than to imitate, or 

 even to describe his admirable works. In the best of 

 their descriptions and their imitations of this divine 

 artist, they do but chatter like Hottentots, and paint 

 like Goths and Vandals. 



SECT. IV. 

 Vf the Nourishment and Growth of Animals. 



LET us proceed in the next place to survey new 

 wonders. All the animals of the creation as well 

 as the plants, have their original nourishment from 

 these simple materials, earth and water. For all 

 the animal beings which do not live upon other ani- 

 mals or the produce of them, take some of the vege- 

 tables for their food ; and thus the brutes of prey 



