482 ' itEARN ANTS OE TIME. XIV. =God and Nature unsearchable. HOW poor and imperfect a creature is man ! How unequal his knowledge ofthings ! How large and almost immensely diffu- sive -his acquaintance with soma parts of nature, but how exceed- ing limited and narrow in others : The man of learning who has the highest temptations to pride, has also the most powerful mo -' tives to humility Man can measure the heavens, tell how many miles the planet Venus'is distant from Jupiter, and how far the earth from the. sun. He has found out with certainty the periods of their revolutions, and the hour of their eclipses ; he can adjust the affairs of the planetary world to a moment, their vast variety of appearances with all. their prodigious circuits. But this great artist man is puzzled at a worm or a fly, a grain of sand or a drop of water There is not the least atom in the whole creation but has questions about it unsearchable to human nature ; no, nor the least part of empty space but sets all the wisest philosophers at variance when they attempt to tell what it is, or whether it be any thing or nothing. This sort of talk, my neighbours will say, is a flourish of wit to teach us to undervalue our reason, a mere rant of rhetoric, an hyperbole of reproach to our understanding : But while I.leave it to astronomers to confirm what, I have said concerning the vast extent of their acquaintance with the heavens, I shall Make it appear, even to demonstration, that our knowledge of the things on earth is as mean as I have exprest in the literal and proper sense. There is not the least grain of sand on the shore, nor the least atom in the whole creation, but has questions about it un- searchable by human nature. This atom may be divided into millions of millions of pieces, nd after all this the least part of it will be infinitely divisible. The infinite divisibility of matter is so often proved and so uni- versally granted by all modern philosophers, that I need not stand to prove it here Yet that my unlearned readers may see and believe, I will set down a plain vulgar demonstration or two of this matter. I. It is certain that if matter be -not infinitely divisible, then there.ìs, or may be, so small a part of matter which cannot be divided further : Now take this supposed part, this fancied atom, and put it between the points of a- pair of compasses made of ;tiff and inflexiblematter ; it is evident that the legs of the com- passes in less and less degrees will be divided asunder quite to the centre ; and from the points'to the centre thereis room for still less and less pieces of matter to be put between the legs. Therefore that very supposed atom may be conceived 'to be
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