the vulgar notion, viz. That there is no Tide at all, but in lieu of it, a small irregular Current among our Leeward Charibee Islands, had not a Merchant, many years fetled at Nevis, (who was brought up a Mariner, and reckoned a very fkilful one) affured me from his own Observations that we had a very regular, though small Tide there; which fmallness we attributed to the want of a Sinus, to confine and raise the Water more, N. B. That the River Amazons, in South-Ame rica, directly under the Equator, is twelve hundred Leagues long, fifty Leagues wide, at it's mouth, and its Tide rifes five or fix fathoms, Here indeed, is Sinus enough to effect it. 21. Since my laft return from Cambridge, I have infpected your Patron, Dr. Woodward's Natural Hiftory of the Earth, published in English, by Benjamin Holloway, LL.B. and Fellow of the Royal Society; and if this natural History be admitted for truth, it is then certain enough, that my Stones, in the fhape of hollow Qyfter-shells, are rightly accounted for by him, and not by Maximilian Miffon. I obferve, how he says, in page 50, That Stone in its Strata and under ground, does grow gradually more and more hard, and fo by little and little attains a compleat Solidity. I never made it my bufinefs to examine narrowly into the affair; but that but that many Stones do grow, is evident enough to me, who fhall not trouble trouble myself to enquire, Whether this growth is effected by Effluvia, Heats, Spars, Salts, &c. You know I have a longish Flint-ftone now by me, which I picked up upon the Beach, near the Fort at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, (where they are not uncommon) in June laft, out of one end whereof, iffues a flender marine Plant that is black, and has a bufhy top of a foot long, and whofe Roots are all of a piece with the hard Flintftone: Now I infift, that this Stone and these Roots, must by way of Petrification, have grown from foft to hard not very long ago, unless we suppose the Plant to have been rooted in the Stone, ever fince the Deluge: But properly speaking, it is rooted in a brown fubftance, in the hollow of the Stone, and is now become all of a piece with it. I shall just hint at one more argument, in behalf of my own opinion, in that refpect, which among others, is inferted at Paragraph 6, of Letter 7, viz. A great live Toad was found at Farmouth, in the Heart of Centre of a Portland Stone, that measured three feet in diameter: And I afk, Whether the Stone had lately grown as I there imagine? Or whether the poor Toad had been fhut up in it, ever fince Noab's Flood? The reality of the matter of fact cannot be called in queftion, because there are multitudes of Eye-witneffes to it, now alive in that Town, i 22. Upon the whole, maturely confidered, I admit that the present state in general, of moft vifible things, may be discovered by a due and candid furvey of them: But alas! to determine the means, how they arrived at this state, is in most cases too difficult a task for human Understanding to go thorough with. For my own part, I never look attentively upon this beautiful Frame of Heaven and Earth, without putting up a devout Ejaculation or Hymn, in honour to their glorious Author and Mover, God, Omnipotent and Gracious, remembring Milton, Book 5, line 557. Up he rode, Follow'd with acclamation and the found And indeed, I may well thus remember him: For (with the learned and ingenious Dr. Brown, in his Religio Medici, page 34.) " I hold, there " is a general Beauty in the Works of God, and "therefore no Deformity in any kind or fpecies "of Creature whatfoever: I cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad, a Bear, or an Elephant, ugly, they being created in those outward shapes and figures, which best express "the Actions of their inward Forms; and hav"ing paffed that general Vifitation of God, who "faw that all that he had made 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 "Beauty, Nature fo ingeniously contriving the irregular parts, as they become fometimes more remarkable, than the principal Fabrick. "To speak yet more narrowly, there never was any thing ugly, or mishapen, but the Chaos, " wherein notwithstanding to speak strictly, there was no Deformity, because no Form, nor was it yet impregnate 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 Na"ture: Were the World now as it was the fixth day, there were yet a Chaos: Nature hath "made one World, and Art another. In brief, "all things are Artificial, for Nature is the Art "of God." I fhould have added to the forego ing Paragraph, as follows. There is an objection, against Dr. Woodward's Diffolution of the whole Earth, at the time of the Deluge, which is not very easily answered, viz. That Mofes, in his Defcription of the four Branches of the River, running out of Eden, makes the prefent Earth (allowing for alterations caufed by Earthquakes, &c.) to be identically the fame, with the Antidiluvian one, in Genefis, 2, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th Verfes: And a River went out of Eden to water the Garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four Heads. The Name of the first is Pison: And that is it which compasseth Havilah, where there is Gold, and the Gold of that Land is good; there is Bdellium, and the Onyx Stone. And the name of the fecond is Gihon, the fame is it which compasseth the Land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third River is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth towards the East of Affyria. And the fourth River is Euphrates. Now, that Mofes is here defcribing the state of thofe Branches of the River, just as they were, during his own life-time, is evident enough, becaufe Scripture (as well as other Oriental Hiflory and Geography) mention their fituation for many hundreds of years, after the decease of that great Prophet, Nor do I fo much depend upon the Authority of Commentators, as I do upon the Reasonableness of my opi |