Tued with great pleasure to my self, I hall enlarge farther upon it, by confidering that part of the fcale of Beings which comes within our knowledge.

There are fome living creatures which are raised but just above dead matter. To mention only that species of shelfish, which are form'd in the fashion of a cone, that grow to the furface of feveral Rocks, and immediately die upon their being fever'd from the place where they grow. There are many other creatures but one remove from thefe, which have no other sense befides that of feeling and taste. Others have ftill an additional one of hearing others of fmell, and others of fight. It is wonderful to obferve, by what a gradual progrefs the world of life advances through a prodigious variety of fpecies, before a creature is form'd that is compleat in all its fenses; and even among these there is fuch a different degree of perfection in the fense which one animal enjoys beyond what appears in another, that though the fenfe in different animals be diftinguished by the fame common denomination, it seems almoft of a different nature. If after this we look into the feveral inward per

fections

fections of cunning and fagacity, or what we generally call Inftinct, we find them rifing after the fame manner, imperceptibly one above another, and receiving additional improvements according to the fpecies in which they are implanted. This progrefs in Nature is fo very gradual, that the most perfect of an inferior fpecies comes very near to the most imperfect of that which is immediately above it.

The exuberant and overflowing goodness of the Supreme Being, whofe mercy. extends to all his works, is plainly feen, as I have before hinted, from his having made fo very little matter, at least what falls within our knowledge, that does not fwarm with life: Nor is his goodness less seen in the diverfity, than in the multitude of living creatures. Had he only made one fpecies of animals, none of the reft would have enjoyed the happiness of existence; he has, therefore, Specified in his creation every degree of life, every capacity of Being. The whole chaẩm in nature, from a plant to a man, is filled up with diverfe kinds of creatures, rifing one over another, by fuch a gentle and eafy afcent, that the little G 3 tranfi

tranfitions and deviations from one fpecies to another, are almoft infenfible. This intermediate space is fo well hufbanded and managed, that there is scarce a degree of perception which does not appear in fome one part of the world of life. Is the goodnels or wisdom of the Divine Being, more manifefted in this his Proceeding?

There is a confequence, befides those I have already mentioned, which feems. very naturally deducible from the foregoing Confiderations. If the scale of Being rifes by fuch a regular progrefs, fo high as man, we may by a parity of reafon fuppofe that it ftill proceeds gradually through thofe Beings which are of a fuperior nature to him; fince there is an infinitely greater fpace and room for different degrees of perfection, between the Supreme Being and man, than between man and the most defpicable infect. This confequence of fo great a variety of Beings which are fuperior to us, from that variety which is inferior to us, is made by Mr. Locke, in a paffage which I fhall here fet down, after having premifed, that notwithstanding there is fuch infinite room between man and his Maker

Maker for the creative power to exert it felf in, it is impoffible that it should ever be filled up, fince there will be ftill an infinite gap or diftance between the higheft created Being, and the Power which produced him..

That there should be more fpecies of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of fenfible and material below us, is probable to me from hence; That in all the visible corporeal world, we fee no chasms, or no gaps. All quite down from us, the defcent is by eafy steps, and a continued feries of things, that in each remove differ very little one from the other. There are fishes that have wings, and are not strangers to the airy region: and there are some birds, that are inhabitants of the water; whose blood is cold as fishes, and their flesh so like in tafte, that the fcrupulous are allowed them on fifb-days. There are animals fo near of kin both to birds and beafts, that they are in the middle between both: Amphibious animals link the terreftrial and aquatick together; Seals live at land and at fea, and porpoifes have the warm blood and entrails of a bog; not to mention what is confidently reported of mermaids or fea-men. There are Some brutes, that feem to have as much knowledge

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knowledge and reafon, as fome that are called men; and the animal and vegetable kingdoms are fo nearly join'd, that if you will take the lowest of one, and the highest of the other, there will fearce be perceived any great difference between them: and fo on till we come to the lowest and the most inorganical parts of matter, we shall find every where that the feveral Species are linked together, and differ but in almost infenfible degrees. And when we confider the infinite power and wifdom of the Maker, we have reafon to think that it is fuitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great defign and infinite goodness of the architect, that the Species of creatures fhould also, by gentle degrees, afcend upward from us toward bis infinite perfection, as we fee they gradually defcend from us downwards: which if it be probable, we have reason then to be perfuaded, that there are far more Species of creatures above us, than there are beneath; we being in degrees of perfection much more remote from the infinite Being of God, than we are from the lowest state of Being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing. And yet of all those diftinct Species, we have no clear diftinct ideas.