I4 2 NATURAL HISTORY 
various ; but to what fhall we attribute thofe freer ftrokes of art, 
whereby the curved lines and lifts are fometimes plain, fometimes 
carved, as in Fig. xx. Plate XV. now radiated, now plain, as in 
XXI ; now wavy, more numerous, and exactly parallel, as in XIX ; 
now a mixture of ftraight and circular fillets, as in xx* Trigono- 
metry, now ftraightlined, as in XXVII, xxvill, &c. now fphe- 
rical, as in XVII, XYIII* XXII, &c. and now the moft elegant 
mixture of both, as xxn, XX ill, xxxv, &c. now plain, 
fmooth globes, as xVi now wire-wrought, buttony, as lxi, lxii, 
lxiii, lxi v. now tubular and pendant, as x, xi. xxxiv, xxxv. 
now wreathed and vermicular, as xiv. liv, lv, lvi. Shall we 
attribute this to a plaftick power fuperintending the congrefs of 
fofiils, and fporting itfelf with natural or preternatural reprefenta- 
tions • or fhall we rather fay, that the great power which contrived 
and made all things, needing no delegate, artfully throws the flexile 
liquid materials of the foflil kingdom into various figures, to draw 
the attention of mankind to his works, and thence lead them, fiift, 
to the acknowledgement, then to the adoration of an intelligent 
being, inexhauftibly wife, good, and glorious ? Doubtlefs thefe are 
the works of that fame lover of fhape, colour, and uniformity, that 
paints the peacock’s train, that veins the Onyx, that ftreaks the 
Zebra * : It is the fame hand whofe traces we may difcover even 
among the meaneft and moft obfcure fofiils. God loves fymmetry, 
gracefulnefs, elegance, and variety, and diftributes them for his 
own complacency as well as glory, limits them not to plants, and 
animals, and open day-light, but, like a great Mafter, habitually 
imparts them to all his works, though in the deepeft ocean, and in 
the moft fecret parts of the earth. 
CHAP. XIII. 
Of the Fiffures in which Metals are found ; their Properties , 
Origine , and Ufe. 
sect. I. 
T H E greateft part of our metals is found in veins or fiffures, 
and the contents which fill thefe veins we call in Cornwall 
Lodes. We will examine the fhell firft, and then confider the kernel. 
sect. II. 
Properties. 
The fides or walls of a fiffure do not always confift of one and 
the fame kind of ftone, nor are they are equally hard; on one fide 
* The female Zebra, or wild-afs of Africa, 
was drawn and publilhed by the ingenious Mr. 
Edwards, librarian to the College of Phyficians, 
London, front the living animal belonging to his 
Royal Highnefs the late Prince of Wales, and 
the male, ftill more remarkable for the regularity 
of its ftreaks, from the fluffed fkin preferved in 
the College of Phyficians, in the year 1 751. 
of 
