And now from this tranfient View of no other than the Out works, than the bare Appendages of the Terraqueous Globe, we have fo manifeft a Sample of the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness of the infinite Creator, that it is eafy to imagine the whole Fabrick is of a piece, the Work of at least a skilful Artift. A Man that fhould meet with a Palace (8), befet with pleafant Gardens adorned with ftately Avenues, furnished with well-contrived Aquæducts, Cafcades, and all other Appendages, conducing to Convenience or Pleasure, would eafily imagine, that proportionable Architecture, and Magnificence were within: But we fhould conclude the Man was out of his Wits, that fhould affert and plead that all was the Work of Chance, or other than of fome wife and fkilful Hand. And fo when we furvey the bare Out-works of this our Globe, when we fee fo vaft a Body, accouter'd with fo noble a Furni ture of Air, Light, and Gravity; with every thing, in fhort, that is neceffary to the Preservation and Security of the Globe it felf, or that conduceth to the Life, Health, and Happiness, to the Propaga tion, and Increafe of all the prodigious Variety of Creatures the Globe is ftocked with; when we fee nothing wanting, nothing redundant, or frivolous, nothing botching, or ill-made, but that every thing, If it be demanded, What becomes of the overplus of Exhalations that defcend not in Rain? I answer; They are partly tumbled down and spent by the Winds, and partly defcend in Dews, which amount to a greater quantity than is commonly imagined. Dr. Halley, 4 found the defcent of Vapours in Dews fo prodigious at St. Helena, that he makes no doubt to attribute the Origine of Fountains thereto. And I my felf have feen in a ftill, cool Evening, large thick Clouds hanging without any Motion in the Air, which in two or three Hours time have been melted down by Degrees, by the cold' of the Evening, fo that not any the leaft remains have been of them left. (8) See Book II. Chap 3. Note 3. even in the very Appendages alone, exactly anfwereth all its Ends, and Occafions: What elfe can be concluded, but that all was made with manifeft Defign, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of fome intelligent Being; fome Artift, of Power and Skill equivalent to fuch a Work? BOOK II. Of the Terraqueous Globe it felf, in general. I N. the foregoing Book having dispatch'd the pal Fabrick, viz. the Terraqueous Globe it felf; a moft ftupendous Work in every particular of it, which doth no lefs aggrandize its Maker (1), than (1) Licet oculis quodammodo contemplari pulchritudinem earum rerum, quas Divinâ Providentia dicimus conftitutas. Ac principio Terra univerfa cernatur, locata in nediâ mundi fede, folida, & globofaveftita floribus, herbis, arboribus, frugibus. Quorum omnium incredi bilis multitudo, infatiabili varietate diftinguitur. Adde huc Fontium gelidas perennitates, liquores perlucidos Amnium, Riparum veftitus viridiffimos, Speluncarum concavas altitudines, Saxorum afperitates, impendentium Montium altitudines, immenfitatefque Camporum: adde etiam reconditas Auri. Que verd, quam varia genera Beftiarum?. Pecudum paftus? vends •Que Volucrum lapfus, atque cantus? Qui Quid de Hominum genere dicam? Qui quasi cultores terræ conftituti, &c. -Qua fi, ut animis, fic oculis videre poffemus, nemo cunctam intuens terram, de Divinâ Ratione dubitaret. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c. 39. D 3 every every curious, complete Work, doth its Workman. Let us caft our Eyes here and there, let us ranfack all the Globe, let us with the greateft Accuracy infpect every part thereof, fearch out the inmoft Secrets of any of the Creatures; let us examine them with all our Gauges, meafure them with our niceft Rules, pry into them with our Microscopes, and moft exquifite Inftruments (), ftill we find them to bear Teftimony to their infinite Workman; and that they exceed all Humane Skill so far, as that the moft exquifite Copies and Imitations of the best Artists, are no other than rude bungling Pieces to them. And fo far are we from being able to efpy any Defect or Fault in them, that the better we know them, the more we admire them; and the farther we fee into them, the more exquifite we find them to be. And for a Demonftration of this; I fhall, I. Take a general Profpect of the Terraqueous Globe. II. Survey its Particulars. I The things which will fall under a general Pro fpect of the Globe, will be its Figure Bulk, Motion, Place, Diftribution into Earth and Waters, and the great Variety of all things upon it, and in it. (II) I cannot here omit the Obfervations that have been made in these later Times, fince we have had the Ufe and Improvement of the Microfcope, concerning the great Difference, which by the help of that, doth appear betwixt Natural and Artificial Things. Whatever is Natural, doth by that appear adorned with all imaginable Elegance and Beauty. -Whereas the most curious works of Art, the sharpest, finest Needle, doth appear as a blunt, rough Bar of Iron, coming from the Furnace or the Forge. The most accurate Engravings, or Emboffments feem fuch rude, bungling, deformed Works, as if they had been done with a Mattock, or a Trowel. So vaft a Difference is there betwixt the Skill of Nature, and the Rudeness and Imperfection of Art. Bp. Wilk. Nat. Rel. L. 1. Ch. 6.. CHAP. CHA P. I. Of the Figure of the Terraqueous Globe. HISI fuppofe I may take for granted to be Spherical, or nearly fo (1). And this must be allowed to be the most commodious, apt Figure for a World on many Accounts; as it is moft capaci ous, as its Surface is equi-diftant from the Center, not (1) Although the Terraqueous Globe be of an orbicular Figure, yet it is not ftrictly fo, 1. On account of its Hills and Vallies. But these are inconfiderable to the Earth's Semidiameter, for they are but as the Dust upon a common Globe. But, 2. Our modern Aftronomers affign a much greater Variation from a globous Form, namely, that of a prolate Sphæroid, making the polar about 34 Miles fhorter than the Equatorial Diameter. The Caufe of which they make to be the centrifugal Force of the diurnal Rotation of the Globe. This Figure they imagine is in Jupiter, his Polar being to his Equatorial Diameter, as 39 to 403. But whether it be fo or no, I confess I could never perceive, although I have often viewed that Planet through very good, and long Glaffes, particularly a tolerable good one of 72 Feet in my Hands: And although by reafon of Cloudy Weather, and (at prefent) Jupiter's proximity to the Sun I have not been of late able to take a review of that Planet yet Saturn (fo far as his Ring would permit,) and Mars, appear perfectly round thro' Mr. Huygens's long Glass of 126 Feet, which by Will he bequeathed, with its whole Apparatus, to our R. S. by whofe Favour it is now in my Hands. And moreover, I believe it difficult, next to impoffible, to measure the two Diameters to a 40th Part, by reafon of the fmalnefs of apparent Diameter, and by reason he is moving all the time of Measuring him. As to what is alledged from lengthening the Pendulums of Clocks, to make them keep the fame Time under the Equator, as they do in our Climes; I have fhewn from the like Variations in the Air-Pump, that this may arise from the rarity of the Air there, more than here. V. Phil. Trans. N. 294. But if the Degrees of a Meridian grow larger, the more we go towards 1 Book II. not only of the Globe, but at (leaft nearly) of Gravity and Motion too, and as fome have thought, of the central Heat and Waters. But thefe, and divers others things I fhall pafs over, and infift only upon two or three other Benefits of this globous Figure of the Earth and Waters.!! 1. This Figure is the most commodions in regard of Hlat, and I may add of Light alfo in fome meafure. For by this means, thofe two great Benefits are uniformly and equally imparted to the World: They come harmonioufly and gradually on, and as gradually go off again. So that the daily and yearly Returns of Light and Darkness, Cold and Heat, Moift and Dry, are Regular and Workman-like, (we may fay,) which they would not be, efpecially the former, if the Mafs of Earth and Waters were (as fome fancied (2) it) a large Plain; or as others, like the Line, (as Mr. Caffini affirms they do, by an 800th Part im every: Degree, in Phil. Trans. N. 298.) then there is great reason tor conclude in behalf of this Sphæroidal Form. The natural Caufe of this Sphericity of our Globe, is (according to Sir Ifaac Newton's Principles) that Attraction, which the Infinite. Creator hath ftamp'd on all the Matter of the Universe whereby all: Bodies, and all the parts of Bodies mutually attract themfelves and one another. By which means, as all the parts of Bodies tend na turally to their Center, fo they all betake themselves to a globous Figure, unless fome other more prevalent Caufe interpole. Thus drops of Quick-filver put on a spherical Form, the parts thereof ftrongly attracting one another. So drops of Water have the fame Form, when falling in the Air; but are Hemispherical only when they lie on hard Body, by reason their Gravity doth so far overpower their felf-attracting Power, as to take of one lialf of their. Sphericity. This Figure is commonly attributed to the Preffure of the circumambieht Air: But that this can't be the caufe, is manifest from the Air-Pump; the cafe being the very fame in an exhausted Receiver, as in the open Air, and not any the least Alteration of the Figure that I could perceive, in all the Trials I have made.. (2) It would be frivolous as well as endless to reckon up the various Opinions of the Antients about the Figure of the Ter 3 raqueous |