"Plants (as Ivy, Moffes, Maiden-hair, Ferns, "and fuch Vegetables as grow in thofe places) "fo exactly defign'd and imprefs'd upon feveral "kinds of Stones, as though fome skilful Pain

ters or Sculpters had been working upon "them: The Doctor obferves alfo the wonder"ful diversity of Shapes and Colours that Oars " and other Foffils fhoot into, refembling al"moft every thing in Nature, for which it "feems very difficult to him to affign any "Caufe or Principle; in the Pyrites alone he "believes he himself may have seen at home "and abroad above a hundred Varieties, and 66 yet he confefles he has been but a rude Ob"ferver of them. In the Diaphanous Foffils

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(as Ambers, Crystals, Agates, &c.) preferv'd "in the Cabinets of the great Duke of Tuscany, "Cardinal Chigi, Settali, Mofcard and other Repofitories or Mufæum's of that curious Country, he takes notice of the admirable diverfity of Bodies included and naturally imprifon'd within them, as Flies, Spiders, "Frogs, Locufts, Bees, Pifmires, Gnats, Grafhoppers, drops of Liquor, Hair, Leaves, Rufhes, Mofs, Seeds, and other Herbage; "which feem to prove them to have been once "in a ftate of Fluidity. The Bononia Stone digg'd up in the Appennines is remarkable for "its fhining quality. The Amianthus for its incombuftibility. The Oculus Mundi for its "Motion and Change of Colour. The Lapis Nephriticus, Calaminaris, Oftiocolla, Etites, "&c. for their Medicinal Ufes.

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I might

I might spend much time in the difcourfing of the most strange and unacountable Nature and Powers of the Loadstone, a fubject which hath exercis'd the Wits and Pens of the most acute and ingenious Philofophers; and yet the Hypothefes which they have invented to give an account of its admirable Phanomena feems to mé lame and unfatisfactory. What can we fay of the fubtlety, activity, and penetrancy of its effluvia, which no obftacle can stop or repel, but they will make their way through all forts of Bodies, firm and fluid, denfe and rare, heavy and light, pellucid and opake? Nay, they will pafs through a vacuity or empty space, at leaft devoid of Air and any other fenfible Body. Its attractive power of Iron was known to the Antients; its verticity and direction to the Poles of the Earth is of later invention; which of how infinite advantage it hath been to these two or three last Ages, the great improvement of Navigation and advancement of Trade and Commerce by rendring the remoteft Countries eafily acceffible, the noble difcovery of a vast Continent or new World, befides a multitude of unknown Kingdoms and Islands, the refolving experimentally thofe antient Problems of the Spherical roundness of the Earth; of the being of Antipodes, or the Habitableness of the Torrid Zone, and the rendring the whole Terraqueous Globe circumnavigable, do abundantly demonftrate; whereas formerly they were wont to coaft it, and creep along the Shores, Icarce daring to venture out of the ken of Land

when

when they did, having no other Guide but the Cynofura or Pole-Star, and those near it, and in cloudy weather none at all.

As for Metals, they are fo many ways useful to Mankind, and thofe Ufes fo well known to all, that it would be loft labour to fay any thing of them: Without the use of these we could have nothing of culture or civility: No Tillage or Agriculture; no Reaping or Mowing; no Plowing, or Digging; no Pruning or Loping; Grafting or Infition; no mechanical Arts or Trades; no Veffels or Utenfils of Houfhold-ftuff; no convenient Houfes or Edifices; no Shipping or Navigation. What a kind of barbarous and fordid Life we must neceffarily have liv'd, the Indians in the Northern part of America are a clear demonftration. Only it is remarkable, that thofe which are of moft frequent and neceffary ufe, as Iron, Brafs and Lead, arethe moft common and plentiful: Others that are more rare, may better be spar'd, yet are they thereby qualified to be inade the common measure and ftandard of the value of all other Commodities, and fo ferve for Coin or Money, to which use they have been imploy'd by all civil Nations in all Ages.

Now of what mighty importance the ufe of Money is to Mankind, the Learned and Ingenious Dr. Cockburn fhews us, in the Second Part of his Essays concerning the Nature of Chriftian Faith, p. 88. Whenever, faith he, the ufe of Money began, it was an admirable Contrivance for rewarding and encouraging Industry,

for

for carring on Trade and Commerce certainly, eafily, and speedily, for obliging all to imploy their various Parts and feveral Capacities for the Common Good, and engaging every one to communicate the Benefit of his particular Labour, without any prejudice to himfelf. Covetoufnefs indeed, or an inordinate Love of Money, is vicious, and the Root of much Evil, and ought to be remedied; but the use of Money is neceffary, and attended with manifold Advantages. Where Money has not yet taken place, where the use of it hath not yet been introduc'd, Arts and Sciences are not cultivated, nor any of those Exercises ply'd, which polite Men's Spirits, and which abate the uneafinefs of Life. Men there are brutish and favage, none mind any thing but eating and drinking, and the other acts of Brutal Nature; their Thoughts afpire no higher than meerly to maintain their Life and Breath: Like the Beafts they walk abroad all the day long, and range about from place to place, only to feek their Food. Whatever may be fuppos'd to follow if all were acted with great Generofity and true Charity, yet according to the prefent Temper of Mankind it is abfolutely neceflary that there be fome method and means of Commutation, as that of Money, for rendring all and every one mutually useful and ferviceable.

Now Gold and Silver by their rarity are wonderfully fitted and accommodated for this ufe of Permutation for all forts of Commodities, or making Money of: Whereas were they H

as

as common and eafie to come by as Straw or Stubble, Sand or Stones, they would be of no more use for Bartering and Commerce than they.

And here he goes on to fhew the wonderful Providence of Cod, in keeping up the Value of Gold and Silver, notwithstanding the vast quan tities which have been digg'd out of the Earth in all Ages, and fo continuing them a fit Material to make Money of. For which I refer

to the Book.

per

Of thefe, Gold is remarkable for its admirable Ductility and Ponderofity, wherein it excels all other Bodies hitherto known. I fhall only add concerning Metals, that they do tinaciously refift all Tranfmutation; and tho' one would fometimes think they were turn'd into a different fubftance, yet do they but as it were lurk under a Larva or Vizard, and may be reduc'd again into their natural Form and Complexions, in difpite of all the Tortures of Vulcan or corrofive Waters. Note, That this was written above Thirty Tears fince, when I thought I had reafon to distrust whatever had then been reported or written to affirm the Tranf mutation of Metals one into another.

I fhall omit the confideration of other Minerals, and of Salts and Earths, because I have nothing to fay of their Ufes, but only fuch as refer to Man, which I cannot affirm to have been the fole or primary End of the Formation. of them. Indeed, to speak in general of these Terreftrial inanimate Bodies, they having no fuch organization of Parts as the Bodies of Ani