nefs and elegancy to exprefs himself in, should be his own; and to this purpofe he fhould daily be exercised in it. Natural $ 190. Natural philofophy, as a fpeculative fcience, I imagine we have none, and perhaps I may think I have reafon to fay we never fhall be able to make a fcience of it. The works of nature are contrived by a wisdom, and operate by ways too far furpaffing our faculties to discover, or capacities to conceive, for us ever to be able to reduce them into a science. Natural philosophy being the knowledge of the principles, properties and operations of things, as they are in themselves, I imagine there are two parts of it, one comprehending fpirits, with their nature and qualities, and the other bodies. The firft of thefe is ufually referred to metaphy. ficks: but under what title foever the confideration of fpirits comes, I think it ought to go before the ftudy of matter and body, not as a science that can be methodized into a fyftem, and treated of upon principles of knowledge; but as an enlargement of our minds towards a truer and fuller comprehenfion of the intelle&ual world, to which we are led both by reafon and revelation. And fince the clearest and largest discoveries we have of other fpirits, befides God and our own fouls, is imparted to us from heaven by revelation, Ithink the information that at leaft young peo ple should have of them, should be taken from that revelation. To this purpose, I conclude, it would be well, if there were made a good hiftory of the bible, før young people to read; wherein if every thing that is fit to be put into it, were laid down in its due order of time, and feveral things omitted which are fuited only to riper age, that confufion which is ufually produced by promifcuous reading of the fcripture, as it lies now bound up in our bibles, would be avoided. And alfo this other good obtained, that by reading of it conftantly, there would be inftilled into the minds of children a notion and belief of spirits, they having fo much to do in all the tranfactions of that hiftory, which will be a good preparation to the ftudy of bodies. For without the notion and allowance of fpirits, our philofophy will be lame and defective in one main part of it, when it leaves out the contemplation of the most excellent and powerful part of the creation. $191. Of this hiftory of the bible, I think too it will be well, if there were a fhort and plain epitome made, containing the chief and moft material heads, for children to be converfant in, as foon as they can read. This, though it will lead them early into fome notion of fpirits, yet it is not contrary to what I faid above, that I would not have children troubled, troubled, whilft young, with notions of fpirits; whereby my meaning was, that I think it inconvenient that their yet tender minds fhould receive early impreflions of goblins, spectres and apparitions, wherewith their maids, and those about them, are apt to fright them into a compliance with their orders, which often proves a great inconvenience to them all their lives after, by fubjecting their minds to frights, fearful apprehensions, weakness and fuperftition; which when coming abroad into the world and converfation, they grow weary and ashamed of; it not fel dom happens that to make, as they think, a thorough cure, and eafe themselves of a load which has fat fo heavy on them, they throw a. way the thoughts of all fpirits together, and fo run into the other, but worse extreme. $192. The reason why I would have this premifed to the ftudy of bodies, and the doctrine of the fcriptures well imbibed before young men be entered in natural philofophy, is, because matter, being a thing that all our fenfes are conftantly converfant with, it is fo apt to poffefs the mind, and exclude all other beings, but matter, that prejudice, grounded on fuch principles, often leaves no room for the admittance of fpirits or the allowing of any fuch thing as immaterial beings in rerum natura; when yet it is evident, that by mere matter and motion, none of the greatest phæ nomena of nature can be refolved. To inftance but in that common one of gravity, which I think impoffible to be explained by a ny natural operation of matter, or any other law of motion, but the pofitive will of a fu perior being fo ordering it: And therefore fince the deluge cannot be well explained, without admitting fomething out of the ordinary course of nature, I fuppofe it to be confidered whether God's altering the centre of gravity in the earth for a time (a thing as intelligible as gravity itself, which perhaps a little variation of caufes unknown to us would produce) will not more eafily account for Noah's flood than any hypothefis yet made ufe of to folve it. I hear the great objection to this, is, that it would produce but a partial deluge. But the alteration of the centre of gravity once allowed, 'tis no hard matter to conceive that the divine power might make the cen tre of gravity, placed at a due distance from the centre of the earth, move round it in a convenient space of time, whereby the flood would become univerfal, and, as I think, anfwer all the phænomena of the deluge, as delivered by Mofes, at an easier rate than those many hard fuppofitions that are made use of to explain it. But this is not a place for that argument, which is here only mentioned by the by, to fhew the neceffity of having recourse to fomething beyond bare matter and its mo tion in the explication of nature; to which the notions of fpirits and their power, as delivered in the bible, where fo much is attributed to their operation, may be a fit prepa rative, referving to a fitter opportunity ler explication of this hypothefis, and the application of it to all the parts of the deluge, and any difficulties that can be fuppofed in the history of the flood, as recorded in the fcrip ture. § 193. But to return to the study of Natu ral Philofophy. Tho' the world be full of fyftems of it, yet I cannot fay, I know any one which can be taught a young man as a science, wherein he may be fure to find truth and certainty, which is what all sciences give an expectation of. I do not hence conclude, that none of them are to be read. It is necef fary for a gentleman, in this learned age, to look into fome of them to fit himself for converfation: But whether that of Des Cartes be put into his hands, as that which is molt in fashion, or it be thought fit to give him a fhort view of that and feveral others alfo, I think the fyftems of natural philofophy that have obtained in this part of the world, are to be read more to know the hypothefis, and to un derstand the terms and ways of talking of the several fects, than with hopes to gain thereby a comprehenfive, scientifical and fatıffactory knowledge of the works of nature. Only N 4 |