166 fiGRNED TOAD. 



was good, that is conformable to his will, which 

 abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and 

 beauty, there is no deformity but in monstrosity ; 

 wherein, notwithstanding, there is a kind of beau- 

 ty ; Nature so ingeniously contriving the irregu- 

 lar parts, as they become sometimes more remark- 

 able than the principal fabrick. To speak yet 

 more narrowly, there never was any thing ugly 

 or mis-shapen but the chaos : wherein notwith- 

 withstanding, to speak strictly, there was no de- 

 formity, because no form ; nor was it yet impreg- 

 nate by the voice of God. Now Nature is not at 

 variance with Art, nor Art with Nature ; they being 

 both the servants of his Providence. Art is the 

 perfection of Nature ; were the world now as it 

 was on the sixth day, there were yet a Chaos. 

 Nature hath made one World, and Art another. 

 In brief, all beings are artificial, for Nature is the 

 Art of God.'— ReL Med. p. 9. 



The learned and acute Sir Kenelm Digby, in 

 his observations on the above passage, replies, 



That logick which he quarreleth at, for calling 

 a Toad or Serpent ugly, will in the end agree with 

 his : for nobody ever took them to be so in re- 

 spect to the Universe (in which regard he defend- 

 eth their regularity and symmetry), but only as 

 they have relation to us. " 



