Order. What an admirable Edifice would not at length refult from fuch Arrangement ? What a Self-complacency would arife in us at beholding this moral Order?

One Word more, my Friend; you know how often we have difcourfed together on the Analogy and Symmetry of Nature, in all its Works. Here we may apply. this Rule of Analogy; if there be fuch a beautiful Order in the Vegetable Kingdom, there must be the like in the Animal, in all Nature, and even in the Kingdom of Spirits. It is one Being who has made all : This Being regulates itself only by one Rule; therefore, as, by Reafon of Order, all Plants do not appear at the fame Time, are not equally lafting, nor of the fame Bignefs: We are to think, that it is the fame, not only in the Animal, but in the fpiritual World, all the Beings composing these Claffes cannot be equal. Some have more Strength, Understanding, and Capacity, than others; this throws a great Light on the Order of the Universe, with Respect to the different States of Men. They neither can, nor ought to have all a Parity of Art and Genius, Skill and Power. Order places one higher, another lower, a third in the Middle, in the fame Manner as we observe in the Corporeal World; and far is this from giving Room for charging G 4

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the Government of the World with any Irregularity or Disorder. It is, on the contrary, an incontestable Proof of the most exact Order, and most beautiful Symmetry. Every Creature is precifely placed in the Station fuitable to it. The fame Rule which has made one a King, has made the other a Peafant. He who is for a different Arrangement, quarrels with univerfal Order.

It is in this Light we are to view the Works of Nature's infinite Author. We are to employ all our Care and Attention for finding out the Rules by which he has difpofed all his Works; and then, throughout the whole Universe, we fhall fee nothing but Order, Beauty, and Grandeur ; and we shall perceive the Obligation incumbent on us, weak Creatures, to conform our Behaviour to the faid Plan. And it is even in Conformity to this Difpofition, that I am, my dear Friend, intirely yours.

ON

ON THE

ANALOGY

BETWEEN THE

NOURISHMENT of the SOUL and that of the BODY.

I

T is fomething difficult to determine which leads to the most important Dif

coveries, the general Confideration of Nature, or a particular Examination of fome detached Pieces, without any Regard to the Whole. This laft Method fhews us, in one fingle Piece, fuch Skill, Power, and Wisdom, that to perceive them perfectly, in their whole Extent, is beyond any human Capacity. The former lets us into the fundamental Rules which the Almighty has obferved in the Compofition of the Univerfe, and into the general Laws by which its Order and Beauty are fupported: It alfo furnishes us. with feveral Reflections on ourselves; and from it we may deduce not a few Rules of proper Conduct. Of this

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the following Meditation will afford a small Specimen :

There are many different Methods of arranging Animals, according to their Claffes, Genufes, and Species, for more precifely diftinguishing every Kind from any other. In this Divifion, indeed, only the effential Differences of Animals are attended to, in Order, as far as poffible, to divide them agreeably to their Nature; fo that, for Inftance, a Mouse and an Elephant may not occur in the fame Clafs; and that even the Animals of neighbouring Claffes may alfo have a certain Analogy in their Nature. In a Divifion for other Ends, Choice must be made of other Properties of the Animals; it would even very much conduce to the Improvement of Nature, were as many Divifions made as poffible: But it is not my Design to enter into a Detail on this Article; I fhall limit myself merely to a Divifion of the Animals, according to the different Kinds of their Food; an Idea which led me to fome moral Reflections.

Under this Point of View are especially to be formed three Claffes of Animals; the first are the Carnivorous, the fecond the Frugivorous, the third feed on inanimate Things belonging to the Foffile Kingdom. But it muft farther be obferved, that feve

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ral Animals, befides their principal Food, have also, as it were, various Dainties belonging to other Claffes; for Inftance, Beafts chewing the Cud generally feed on Vegetables, but they are likewife fond of Salt, which is of the Foffile Genus. The firft General likewife admits of Subdivifions; fome Animals, of which it is compofed, usually live only on Quadrupeds, as the Lion, the Wolf, &c. others feed only on Birds, as the Pollcat; fome attack Fish, as the Heron; whilft others fubfift at the Expence of Infects, as feveral Kinds of Birds: Some take up with different Sorts of these Foods, as the Fox, which devours. both Poultry and Hares; the Cat, to whom Mice, Fish, and Birds are equally welcome the Eagle, which preys on Quadrupeds and Birds; and fo of the others; each Kind, however, having fome principal Aliment. Every Species might further be divided into lower Claffes; for, in faying that an Animal delights to feed on Quadrupeds, this does not mean that they are all alike to it, for, generally, only certain Kinds will go down with it. But this Detail is not neceffary to my Scope, intending only to discourse of the fecond general Class of Animals, which contains thofe living on the Vegetable Kingdom. Here may be obferved several inferior Claffes, almost eve