8 The Natural Bipry Part V^ 



ail imaginable Benignity and Gentle- 

 nefs. Here is none of the Hurry and 

 Precipitation : none of the Bluftering 

 and Violence: no nniofe than any ^ 

 the direful and ruinous EfFefts, whicil 

 muft needs have attended thok S^^ppo- 

 fititiom Changes. And as thefe Alte- 

 rations are not great ^ fb neither are 

 they numtrous. 1 have made careful 

 jfearch on all hands, and canvafs'd the 

 Matter with all poffible Diligence, and 

 yet there are none that I can advance 

 from my Ovvn Obfervations, but 



That the upper or outermoft Stra- 

 tum of Earth : that Stratam whereon 

 Men and other Animals tread, and 

 Vegetables grow, is in a perpetual Flux 

 and Change 5 this being the common 

 Fund and Promptuary that fupplies 

 and fends forth Matter for the Forma- 

 tion of Bodies upon the face of the 

 Earth. That all Animals, and parti* 

 cularly Mankind, as well as all Vege- 

 tables, which have had Being fince the 

 Creation of the W orld, derived all the 

 confrituent Matter of their Bodies, fuc- 

 eeffively, in all Ages, out of this Fund, 



That the Matter which is thus 

 drawn out of this Stratum for the For- 

 mation of thefe Bodies, is at length 



laid 



