able to bear them about, to cloath them, and to dandle them, as Man doth; how admirably hath the Creator contrived their State, that thofe poor young Creatures can foon walk about, and with the little helps of their Dam, fhift for, and help themselves? How naturally do they hunt for their Teat, fuck, pick (72), and take in their proper Food?

But for the Young of Man, their Parents Reafon, joined with Natural Affection, being fufficient to Help, to Nurfe, to Feed, and to Cloath them; therefore they are born Helpless, and are more abfolutely than other Creatures, caft upon their Parents Care (73). A manifeft Act and De fignation of the Divine Providence.

2. The other Inftance I promised, is the Provifion made for the Prefervation of fuch Animals as are fometimes deftitute of Food, or in danger of being fo. The Winter is a very inconvenient, im proper Season, to afford either Food or Exercife to Infects, and many other Animals. When the flowry Fields are divefted of their Gaiety; when the fertile Trees and Plants are ftripp'd of their Fruits, and the Air, inftead of being warmed with

the

(72) There is manifeftly a fuperintending Providence in this Cafe, that fome Animals are able to fuck as foon as ever they are born, and that they will naturally hunt for the Teat before they are quite gotten out of the Secundines, and parted from the Navel-String, as I have feen. But for Chickens, and other young Birds, they not being able im mediately to pick till they are ftronger, have a notable Pro vifion made for fuch a time, by a part of the Yolk of the Egg being inclofed in their Belly, a little before their Exclufion or Hatching, which ferves for their Nourishment, till they are grown ftrong enough to pick up Meat. Vid Book VII. Chap. 4. Note 1.

(73) Qui Infantes] de ope noftrà ac de divinâ mifericordia plus merentur, qui in primo ftatim nativitatis fue ortu ploran tes ac fentes, nil aliud faciunt quam deprecantur. Cypr.Ep. ad Fid.

(74).

the cherishing Beams of the Sun, is chilled with rigid Froft; what would become of fuch Animals as are impatient of Cold? What Food could be found by fuch as are fubfifted by the SummerFruits? But to obviate all this Evil, to ftave off the Destruction and Extirpation of divers Species of Animals, the infinitely wife Preferver of the World hath as wifely ordered the matter; that, in the first place, fuch as are impatient of Cold, fhould have fuch a special Structure of their Body, particularly of their Hearts, and Circulation of their Blood (74), as during that Season, not to fuffer any waste of their Body, and confequently not to need any Recruits; but that they fhould be able to live in a kind of fleepy, middle State, in their Places of fafe Retreat, untill the warm Sun revives both Them and their Food together.

The next Provifion is for fuch as can bear the Cold, but would want Food then; and that is in fome by a long Patience of Hunger (75), in others

by

(74) I might name here fome of the Species of Birds, the whole Tribe almost of Infects, and some among other Tribes, that are able to fubfift for many Months without Food, and fome without Refpiration too, or very little but it may fuffice to inftance only in the Land-Tortoife, of the Structure of whofe Heart and Lungs, fee Book VI. Chap. 5. Note 2.

(75) Inediam diutiffime tolerat Lupus, ut & alia omnia carnivora, licèt voracissima; magnâ utique nature providentiâ, quoniam efca non femper in promptu eft. Ray Synopf. Quadr.

P. 174.

To the long Abftinence mentioned of Brute-Animals, I hope the Reader will excufe me if I add one or two Inftances of extraordinary Abftinence among Men. One Martha Taylor, born in Derbyshire, by a Blow on the Back fell into fuch a Proftration of Appetite, that he took little Suftenance, but fome drops with a Feather, from Christmas, 1667. for thirteen. Months, and flept but little too all the time. Dr. Sampfon's Account thereof in Ephem. Germ. T. 3. Obf173. To this we may add the Cafe of S. Chilton, of Tinsbury, near Bath, who in the Years 1693, 1696, and 97, flept di

by their notable Inftinct in laying up Food beforehand against the approaching Winter (76). Of this many entertaining Examples may be given; particularly we may, at the proper Season, obferve not only the little Treasures and Holes wellftocked with timely Provifions, but large Fields (77) here and there throughout befpread with confide

rable

vers Weeks together. And although he would fometimes, in a very odd manner, take Suftenance, yet would lie a long time without any, or with very little, and all without any confiderable Decay. See Phil. Tranf. No. 304

(76) They are admirable Inftincts which the Sieur de Beauplau relates of his own Knowledge, of the little Animals called Bobaques in Ukraine, They make Burroughs like Rabbets, and in October shut themselves up, and do not come out again till April. --- They fpend all the Winter under Ground, eating what they laid up in Summer. Thofe that are lazy among them, they lay on their backs, then lay a great bandful of dry Herbage upon their Bodies, &c. then others drag thofe Drones to the Mouths of their Burroughs, and fo thofe Creatures ferve infead of Barrows, &c. I have often seen them practice this, and have had the Curiofity to obferve them whole Days together.Their Holes are parted like Chambers; fome ferve for Store-boufes, others for Burying-Places, &c. Their Government is nothing inferior to that of Bees, &c. They never go abroad without pofting a Centinel upon fome high Ground, to give notice to the others whilft they are feeding. As foon as the Centinel fees any Body, it ftands upon his hind-Legs and whiftles. Beauplau's Defcription of Ukraine, in Vol. I of the Collection of Voyages, &c.uk

A like Inftance of the Northern Galli Sylveftres, fee in Chap. 13. Note 6.

As for the Scriptural Inftance of the Ant, fee hereafter Book VIII. Chap. 5. Note 4.

(77) I have in Autumn, not without pleasure obferved, not only the great Sagacity and Diligence of Swine, in hunting out the 8tores of the Field-Mice; but the wonderful Precaution alfo of thofe little Animals, in hiding their Food beforehand against Winter. In the time of Acorns falling, I have, by means of the Hogs, difcovered, that the Mice had, all over the neighbouring Fields, treafured up fingle Acorns in little Holes they had fcratched, and in which they had carefully covered up the Acorn. Thefe the Hogs would, day, after day, hunt out by their Smell. P 3

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Book IV. rable numbers of the Fruits of the neighbouring Trees, laid carefully up in the Earth, and covered fafe, by the provident little Animals inhabiting thereabouts. And not without pleasure have I feen and admired the Sagacity of other Animals, hunting out thofe fubterraneous Fruits, and pillaging the Treafures of thofe little provident Creatures.

And now from this bare tranfient View of this Branch of the Great Creator's Providence and Government, relating to the Food of his Creatures, we can conclude no lefs, than that fince this grand Affair hath fo manifeft Strokes of admirable and wife Management, that fince this is demonftrated throughout all Ages and Places, that therefore it is God's Handy-work. For how is it poffible that fo vaft a World of Animals fhould be fupported, fuch a great Variety equally and well fupplied, with proper Food,in every Place fit for Habitation, without an especial Superintendency and Management, equal to, at leaft, that of the moft prudent Steward and Houfholder? How fhould the Creatures be able to find out their Food when laid up. in fecret Places? And how fhould they be able to gather even a great deal of the common Food, and at laft to macerate and digeft it, without peculiar Organs adapted to the Service? And what lefs than an infinitely wife God could form fuch a Set of curious Organs, as we find every Species endowed with, for this very Ufe? Organs fo artificially made, fo exquifitely fitted up, that the more ftrictly we furvey them, the more accurately we view them (even the meaneft of them with our beft Glaffes) the lefs Fault we find in them, and the more we admire them: Whereas the best polished, and moft exquifite Work, made by Human Art, appear through our Glaffes, as rude and bung ling, deformed and monstrous; and yet we ad

mire them, and call them Works of Art and Reafon. And lastly, what lefs than Rational and Wife could endow irrational Animals with various Inftincts, equivalent, in their special way, to Reafon it felf? Infomuch that fome from thence have abfolutely concluded, that thofe Creatures had fome glimmerings of Reafon. But it is manifeftly Inftinct, not Reafon they act by, because we find no varying, but that every Species doth naturally purfue at all times the fame Methods and way, without any Tutorage or Learning: whereas Reafon, without Inftruction, would often vary, and do that by many Methods, which Instinct doch by one alone. But of this probably more hereafter.

H

CHA P. XII...

Aving in the foregoing Chapter fomewhat largely taken a View of the Infinité Creator's Wifdom and Goodnefs towards his Creatures, in ordering their Food, I fhall be more brief in this Chapter, in my View of their Clothing (1); another neceffary Appendage of Life, and in which we have plain Tokens of the Crea

Dutor's

(1) Concerning the Cloathing of Animals, Ariftotle obferves, That fuch Animals have Hair as go on Feet and are viviparous; and that fuch are covered with a Shell, as go on Feet, and are oviparous, Hift. Anim. 1. 3. c. 10.

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(2) CU