which I have introduced them. There are others, T muft confefs, whofe Objections have given me a greater Concern, as they seem to reflect, under this Head, rather on my Morality than on my Invention. These are they who fay an Author is guilty of Falfhood, when he talks to the Publick of Manufcripts which he never saw, or describes Scenes of Action or Difcourfe in which he was never engaged. But these Gentlemen would do well to confider, there is not a Fable or Parable, which ever was made ufe of, that is not liable to this Exception; fince nothing, according to this Notion, can be related innocently, which was not once Matter of Fact. Befides, I think the most ordinary Reader may be able to discover, by my Way of Writing, what I deliver in thefe Occurrences as Truth, and what as Fiction.

SINCE I am unawares engaged in answering the feveral Objections which have been made against these my Works, I must take Notice that there are fome who affirm a Paper of this Nature fhould always turn upon diverting Subjects, and others who find fault with every one of them that hath not an immediate Tendency to the Advancement of Religion or Learning. I fhall leave thefe Gentlemen to dispute it out among themfelves; fince I fee one half of my Conduct patronized by each Side. Were I ferious on an improper Subject, or trifling in a serious one, I should deservedly draw upon me the Cenfure of my Readers; or were I confcious of any Thing in my Writings that is not innocent at leaft, or that the greatest Part of them were not fincerely defigned to discountenance Vice and Ignorance, and fupport the Interest of true Wisdom and Virtue, I should be more fevere upon my felf than the Publick is difpofed to be. In the mean while I defire my Reader to confider every particular Paper or Difcourfe as a diftinct Tract by itself, and independent of every Thing that goes before or after it.

I fhall end this Paper with the following Letter, which was really fent me, as fome others have been which I have published, and for which I muft own my felf indebted to their respective Writers.

SIR,

I

• of your

WAS this Morning in a Company of your Wellwishers, when we read over, with great Satisfaction, Tully's Observations on Action adapted to the British Theatre: Though, by the way, we were very for་ ry to find that you have difpofed of another Member Club. Poor Sir Roger is dead, and the worthy Clergyman dying. Captain Sentry has taken Pof⚫feffion of a fair Eftate; Will. Honeycomb has married a • Farmer's Daughter; and the Templer withdraws him⚫ felf into the Business of his own Profeffion. What will all this end in? We are afraid it portends no Good to the Publick. Unless you very speedily fix a Day for ⚫ the Election of new Members, we are under Apprehenfions of lofing the British Spectator. I hear of a Party of Ladies who intend to address you on this Subject, and question not, if you do not give us the Slip · very fuddenly, that you will receive Addreffes from all Parts of the Kingdom to continue so useful a Work. Pray deliver us out of this Perplexity, and among the • Multitude of your Readers you will particularly oblige

Your most fincere Friend and Servant,

Philo-Spec.

Saturday,

:

No.543. Saturday, November 22.

Facies non omnibus una

Nec diverfa tamen.

Ovid.

T

HOSE who were skilful in Anatomy among the Ancients, concluded from the outward and inward Make of an human Body, that it was the Work of a Being transcendently Wife and Powerful. As the World grew more enlightened in this Art, their Difcoveries gave them fresh Opportunities of admiring the Conduct of Providence in the Formation of an human Body. Galen was converted by his Diffections, and could not but own a Supreme Being upon a Survey of this his Handy. work. There were, indeed, many Parts of which the old Anatomifts did not know the certain Ufe; but as they faw that most of those which they examined were adapted with admirable Art to their feveral Functions, they did not queftion but thofe, whofe Ufes they could not determine, were contrived with the fame Wisdom for refpective Ends and Purposes. Since the Circulation of the Blood has been found out, and many other great Discoveries have been made by our modern Anatomifts, we fee new Wonders in the human Frame, and discern several important Ufes for thofe Parts, which Ufes the Ancients knew nothing of. In fhort, the Body of Man is fuch a Subject as ftands the utmost Teft of Examination. Tho' it appears formed with the nicest Wisdom, upon the mot fuperficial Survey of it, it ftill mends upon the Search, and produces our Surprize and Amazement in Proportion as we pry into it. What I have here faid of an human Body, may be applied to the Body of every Animal which has been the Subject of anatomical Observations.

THE Body of an Animal is an Object adequate to our Senfes. It is a particular Syftem of Providence, that lies

in a narrow Compafs. The Eye is able to command it, and by fucceffive Enquiries can fearch into all its Parts. Could the Body of the whole Earth, or indeed the whole Universe, be thus fubmitted to the Examination of our Senfes, were it not too big and difproportioned for our Enquiries, too unwieldy for the Management of the Eye and Hand, there is no queftion but it would appear to us as curious and well contrived a Frame as that of an human Body. We fhould fee the fame Concatenation and Subferviency, the fame Neceffity and Usefulness, the fame Beauty and Harmony in all and every of its Parts, as what we difcover in the Body of every fingle Animal.

THE more extended our Reafon is, and the more able to grapple with immenfe Objects, the greater ftill are thofe Difcoveries which it makes of Wisdom and Providence in the Work of the Creation. A Sir Ifaac New ton, who ftands up as the Miracle of the prefent Age, can look thro' a whole planetary Syftem; confider it in its Weight, Number and Measure, and draw from it as many Demonftrations of infinite Power and Wisdom, as a more confined Understanding is able to deduce from the Syftem of an human Body.

BUT to return to our Speculations on Anatomy. I fhall here confider the Fabrick and Texture of the Bodies of Animals in one particular View; which, in my Opinion, fhews the Hand of a thinking and all-wife Bing in their Formation, with the Evidence of a thoufanu De monftrations. I think we may lay this down as an incontefted Principle, that Chance never acts in a perpetual Uniformity and Confiftence with itself. If one fhould always fling the fame Number with ten thoufand Dice, or fee every Throw juft five times lefs or five times more in Number than the Throw which immediately preceded it, who would not imagine there is fome invifible Power which directs the Caft? This is the Proceeding which we find in the Operations of Nature. Every Kind of. Animal is diverfified by different Magnitudes, each of which gives Rife to a different Species. Let a Man trace the Dog or Lion-kind, and he will obferve how many of the Works of Nature are published, if I may use the Expreffion, in a Variety of Editions. If we look into. the Reptile World, or into those different Kinds of Animals

mals that fill the Element of Water, we meet with the fame Repetitions among feveral Species, that differ very little from one another, but in Size and Bulk. You find the fame Creature that is drawn at large, copied out in feveral Proportions, and ending in Miniature. It would be tedious to produce Inftances of this regular Conduct in Providence, as it would be fuperfluous to those who are verfed in the natural History of Animals. The magnificent Harmony of the Univerfe is fuch, that we may obferve innumerable Divifions running upon the fame Ground. I might alfo extend this Speculation to the dead Parts of Nature, in which we may find Matter difpofed into many fimilar Systems, as well in our Survey of Stars and Planets, as of Stones, Vegetables, and other fublunary Parts of the Creation. In a Word, Providence has fhewn the Richness of its Goodness and Wisdom, not only in the Production of many original Species, but in the Multiplicity of Defcants which it has made on `every original Species in particular.

BUT to purfue this Thought ftill farther: Every living Creature, confidered in itself, has many very complicated Parts, that are exact Copies of fome other Parts which it poffeffes, and which are complicated in the same Manner. One Eye would have been fufficient for the Subfiftence and Prefervation of an Animal; but, in order to better his Condition, we fee another placed with a

nematical Exactnefs in the fame most advantageous Situation, and in every particular of the fame Size and Texture. Is it poffible for Chance to be thus delicate and uniform in her Operations? Should a Million of Dice turn up twice together the fame Number, the Wonder would be nothing in Comparison with this. But when we fee this Similitude and Resemblance in the Arm, the Hand, the Fingers; when we fee one half of the Body entirely correfpond with the other in all thofe minute Strokes, without which a Man might have very well fubfifted; nay, when we often see a single Part repeated an hundred times in the fame Body, notwithstanding it confifts of the most intricate weaving of numberless Fibres, and these Parts differing ftill in Magnitude, as the Convenience of their particular Situation requires; fure a Man must have a ftrange Caft of Understanding, who M4 does