14 BOOK. OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



and goodness is highly apparent, when we consider 

 that this is the most capacious, compact, and dura- 

 ble of all figures, the most convenient for a body in 

 motion, for the equal distribution of light and heat, 

 for the proper disposal of land and water, as well as 

 for the beneficial influence of the winds. 



The earth, which is the habitation of so many 

 Creatures, must be sufficiently capacious not only to 

 oontain them, but what is necessary for their preser- 

 vation ; and being, as it were, the basis of this sub- 

 lunary creation, it must be so firmly and compactly 

 girt together, as to be beyond the reach of accident 

 to destroy any of its parts, till the fiat shall have gone 

 forth, that Time shall be no more. 



Had it been of an Angular form, the points of 

 the angles behoved to have been considerably weak- 

 ened by their distance from the centre of gravity, 

 and consequently would have been in continual 

 danger of being loosened, or flying off, by the ra- 

 pidity of the earth's diurnal motion round its axis; 

 or, had it been possible for them to have remained, 

 what resistance must these angles have occasioned 

 in the performance of that motion! What a conti- 

 nual state of perturbation and tempest in the air must 

 they have caused! How incommodious to the dif- 

 fusion of light and heat, and for the wise and useful 

 distribution of the waters ! 



TIic Surface of the Earth. 



In casting our eyes abroad over the face of the 

 eftrth, we observe, it covered with two great bodies 



