[ 18 ] 



fleer the beft courfe we can, fetting before oMt 

 eyes truth as the port we endeavour to gain, 

 v/hich ought always to be our diredor in opi- 

 nions and adions, in relation to God and man, 

 as well as in our general pradices and fpecula- 

 tions in the world. 



He that would write any thing in general on 

 nature, or on any particular natural fubjed^ 

 ought, fo far as his faculties will permit him, to 

 penetrate into its fources, and trace it backward, 

 if poffible, to find out the firft caufe and mover 

 of all things. If we confider ourfelves, and the 

 animal beings that inhabit the face of this globe, 

 we muft wonder, at firft, how they came to be j 

 but, when we think of the infcrutable fprings 

 of life and motion, we muft be aftonifhed to 

 the higheft degree, not knowing from whence 

 thefe things fpring : and we can folve thefe in- 

 conceivable things no other way, than by fup- 

 pofing there muft exift fome great, invifible, in- 

 conceivable, all-wife, and all-powerful Creator; 

 fmce the vifible creation is fuftained always, pro- 

 ducing the fame forms of natural things, which 

 fucceed from one generation to another, through 



the 



