prodigious a quantity and magnitude of fea and land, to be thy houfe, thy workmanship, and not that of the immortal gods?" And fo when we fee fuch good order, fuch due proportion, in thefe regions of the univerfe, and have good reafon to conclude the fame may be throughout the whole, can we, without great violence to reafon, imagine this to be any other than the work of God?

We come now to the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves; and we shall confider them as a demonftration of the being and attributes of God.

In treating concerning the motions of the heavenly bodies, it will be neceffary to take in that of the earth too, it being difficult to fpeak of the one without the other. And here are two things that point out the prefcience and regard of God; firit, that fuch bodies fhould move at all; and, fecondly, that their motion fhould be fo regular.

First, The motion of all thofe vaft bodies muft of neceffity be caufed by a being that had power to put them in motion; for, as Lactantius well argues, there is indeed a power in the stars, and the like may be faid of the rest of the globes, of performing their motions; but that is the power of God, which orders and governs all things, and not of the ftars themfelves that

are moved; for it is impoffible for fuch lifeless, dull, unwieldy bodies, to move themselves; but what motion they have, they must receive from fomething elfe able to move them.

Now this, fome will fay, may be effected by the vortices surrounding the fun, the earth, or other primary mover, or from a vortorial power or emanation of the sun or other like primary mover, carrying about and pushing on fuch bodies as move about them. But allowing it is poffible it might be fo, yet ftill we muft recur to fome first mover, fome primary agent, who was able to fet that principle mover into motion. And then the cafe amounts to much the fame, and the argument hath the fame force, whether we attribute the motion of one or all the feveral globes to the power of God; for in our folar fyftem for inftance, if it fhould be thought that the fix primary planets revolving round. the fun received their motion from his revolution round his axis, yet let us confider whether it is poffible for fuch a prodigious mafs to be carried round for fo long a time by any natural caufe. For which reafon (fays Plato) I affert God to be the caufe, and that it is impoffible it fhould be otherwife."

[To be continued.]

&gtinued.]

THE HIPPOPOTAMOS,

OR RIVER HORSE,

WHEN we extend our view

through creation, and confider the infinite variety, which the wifdom of God hath produced, we ftand aftonished at the exuberance of defign, and cannot fail to enter

tain the highest ideas of fo great and glorious a Being. Any one order of creatures, of beafts, of birds, of fishes, nay or of vegetables is fufficient to engrofs our whole attention; fo extenfive and fo manifold are they, that our fpeculations can never be wearied : and furely they never fhould be wearied in contemplating his works,

who

who is the first author of wisdom

and beauty.

Nature has destined many creatures to pafs part of their lives under water, and part on land; but to all of them, excepting the fea-horse kind, she has given means of fwimming: this has none-the fnake kind, by their motion of the whole body pafs along very swiftly under water, and the otter has feet for fwimming: the fea-horfe has to feed under water, yet it is the moft unweildy of all creatures, and has no fuch power. It comes out of the water in an evening to fleep, and when it goes in again, it walks very deliberately in over head, and purfues its courfe along the bottom as easy and unconcerned as if it were in open air: the rivers it most frequents are very deep, and where they are alfo clean; this affords a most aftonishing fight.

To understand this, it is neceffary first to be acquainted with its form the river horfe is as tall as the largest horfe, but its body is much larger, and its legs thicker and fhorter; and its skin is quite naked the head is vaftly bulky; and the mouth, which it has a way of opening very frequently, and of toffing up its head at the fame time, is the most terrible that can be imagined; the teeth are blunt, but very thick and long, and are harder than any other animal substance; the tail is fhort and naked; and the feet are not folid like thofe of an horfe, but are divided each into four parts, in the manner of toes.

An animal of this fize and make must be one of the ftrongest in the world, and it is fo: it therefore required from nature no swiftness to efcape purfuit; nor, as it is deftined to feed on vegetables, did it require fwiftness to overtake a a prey that at all times lies before it; the manner of its feeding, as feen by the Africans, in fome of their large rivers, where it is very VOL. II. No. 11.

frequent, is this: It walks very deliberately into a river, and feldom looks about it till it is nearly in the middle, the water there being deep, and confequently it being out of the way of difturbance: here it feeks about for the larger water herbs, and in particular for the root of a large water lilly, which is frequent there, and flowers under the water. People, from a boat on the furface, frequently fee this: It will root up this with its nofe, like an hog; and, the mouth and throat being very wide, it fwallows them in valt mouthfuls half chewed. The river-horfe feeding on vegetables only, its flesh is delicate and white, although the fkin looks forbidding: thofe who have eaten of it, fay that it is of a middle tate between that of veal and pork. The natives kill it by way of food; this they fometimes take opportunity to do as it is afleep on the fhores in the night; but the most ufual way is in the day-time, by a baited hook: this is a very fingular fport, though a dangerous one. Those who go on this expedition, take for it a feafon when there have not been rains, fo that the river is clear: and they fet out with their tackle for catching the creatures, and with arms for their defence. They embark in a boat capable to carry twenty people, though only five ufually go in it; and thefe boats are built with remarkable ftrength they fall down the river in one of these, and they wait at a distance from fome proper place to fee whereabouts the creatures are; this is eafily difcovered, by their rifing to the furface, for they do this frequently when not disturbed. The fea-horfe has an occafion to breath at times, though he can keep long under water; and when feeding at his eafe, his cuftom is once in ten minutes to rife to the furface of the water: this he does from ever fo great a depth, by

D

for

by a fpring from the bottom, made by all his feet at once; and having taken a mouthful of air, and looked about him, he drops to the bottom again; the fportfmen lie at this time behind the covert of fome hedge near the bank; and when they have discovered a place where there are two or three near each other, as is frequently the cafe, they make thither, and prepare the fport; they know the middle of the river is the place where they feed, partly to be out of the way of disturbance, and partly to take the advantage of any food that may be brought down by the ftream. The sportsmen now prepare their tackle; they have an iron fpike of eight inches long, tolerably thick, and fharp at each end; to the middle of this is faftened a kind of cord, made of feveral iron wires twisted the whole of the thickness of a man's little finger, and of five or fix feet in length; to the other end of this is fixed a cord of many fcore toifes in length, and the other end of this cord is fixed to the ftern of the boat with a kind of reel, from whence more or less of it can be fet off as there is occafion.

The roots of the water lily, of which the creature is fo fond, are of the thickness of a man's thigh. A piece of one of thefe, of a foot long, is the bait: they run the iron spike into the centre of this, till it is entirely buried in it, and then letting it fall into the water, they let off as much cord from the reel as will give it room to go to the bottom. In this fituation they let themfelves down the ftream, but not quite fo fwift as it would carry them, for they retard the motion by the ufe of fome fmall oars which they ply very gently. As they pafs in this manner on the furface, they fee often four or five of the river horfes, feeding quietly at thirty feet depth below, and giving themselves no trouble about them. The bait dragging along the bottom feems a fragment of the

root of which the creature is fo fond, broken off by fome accident and coming down with the fream. the first of the animals, in whose way it comes, feizes it; if he has already fed heartily, he is lazy and champs it; in this cafe he eats the root, and shakes the fpike out of his mouth: but if it fall in the way of one that is hungry and ravenous, he is caught; he fwallows it with little chewing, and it goes down lengthways, and the fpike of iron with it as foon as it is fwallowed the people in the boat give a violent jirk to the cord, and the fpike is turned croffways in his throat, and he is fecure. From this time they have what they ef teem the diverfion of their expedition, but it is a dangerous one, and they enjoy it ready prepared for an affault. Each man has a spear, with a point twelve inches long of iron, lying by him. The creature is at the depth of from twenty to five and thirty feet, clear water, and their business is to play him about, as the angler does a large fish, till he is tired, and they can get him on fhore; but the fport is greater in proportion to the ani

mal.

As foon as he feels himself wounded, he becomes outrageous, fometimes he makes away with all his fpeed for deeper water, and they give him line, notwithitanding the boat is often in danger; fometimes he plunges, rolls, and Aounces in a terrible manner, in the fame place bleeding and wounded the more by his motions; they all the while fatiguing him, The agony of the creature often renders him regardless of every thing, and the fportfmen look on with pleafure; but when when he looks up and fees them, he does not fail to know they are the occafion of what he suffers, and he rifes inftantly to the furface: their fpears are all now darted at him at once, and they generally dispatch him; but as he rifes juft at the fide

of

of the boat, the pofture he attempts is to put his fore-feet in; if fo, he ufually deftroys fome one, for fuch a mouth in agony is fatal if he fails in this, he bites at the fide of the boat, and never fails to take a piece out, often fo large as to fink the veffel. Sometimes

:

he rifes at a greater diftance and ftands at bay, when they dart at him. He always attempts to catch the ftroke at his mouth, if he shuts it upon the weapon, the point is bitten off; and if it ftrike

fideways upon his teeth, it gives fire with them as a fteel would do against a flint. These are the accounts we receive from those who have feen the sport, and there is this probability that their teeth are vaftly harder than ivory, or any other bony fubftance whatever, and will ftrike fire in the manner of a flint with a steel on a fmall blow.

The bolder people practise the fport thus fingly, but the more wary go out in two boats, and they have, befides for fafery, a further advantage, the bait is let down in this cafe from one of the boats, as already obferved; and a fecond cord is faftened to the first about the top of the wires, this communicates with the other boat; thus the two fall flowly down the ftream, and looking before them, wherever they fee one of the creatures, they can, by the motion of the two cords, draw the bait where in its

course it muft fall juft under its nofe fond of the food, and free from all fufpicion, he never fails to feize it; and when he is ftruck, they play him about much more eafily. If in this cafe he rifes at them, at whichever boat he aims, those on the oppofite fide draw him away; and when he makes at them, the people in the first draw him back again: thus fome keeping the boats at a distance, while others manage him by the two cords, they keep him on the furface, and play with all his fury; fome one perfon on each boat, at the fame time, ftriking him with a lance, till they have difpatched him.

The river-horfe is the only creature of this kind ufually known, but there are two others differing from it in fize, and in some more effential particulars; these two are of South America. They have neither of them any tail; and the one, which is as big as a well-grown calf, has a very long and flender head and the other, the fize of which is about equal to that of a large maftiff, has the head fo vaftly large and fleshy, that it can scarce fee out of its eyes, and hardly fupport the weight of it. These both feed on vegetables in the manner of the other; and the natives of thofe parts of America, where they are met with, eat them, and account their flesh a great delicacy.

with a conftant increase of fame and glory, carries in it fomething wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man this world, therefore, with a view to fame, is only a nursery for the next; and the feveral generations of rational creatures, which rife up and disappear in fuch rapid fucceffions, are only to receive their firft rudiments of applaufe and afterwards to be tranfplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish amidst the fmiles of a perpetual remembrance.

The means or inftruments men have devised for propagating their fame, confift in the erecting of monuments, impreffing medals, and obtaining a place in hiflory. Some, having juft reafon to defpond of fhining in the laft, have been careful, during their own life time, to immortalize themfelves by either of the other methods; but as herein they have been influenced by vanity and pride, the memory becomes hateful; for it is not enough, that thefe monuments and medals fpeak; they muft fpeak truth, otherwife what was intended as a panegyric will be converted into reproach.

The beft way to live in the annals of fame is to fufpend the enjoyment of it. The jufteft character of a man is to be had of men. Grateful pofterity will not fail to erect fepulchral monuments, obelifks, triumphal arches, to the deferving. The worst way to fame must furely be in fhewing ourfelves too anxious about it. Death fets a kind of feal upon a man's character, and places him out of the reach of vice and infamy. Death only clofes a man's reputation, and determines it either good or bad. This makes it dangerous to praise men, while living; for whilft they are capable of changing, we may be forced to retract our opinions. As no life can be called happy or

unhappy, fo it cannot be called vicious or virtuous, till the end of it; and, as there is not a more melancholy confideration to a good man, than his being obnoxious to fuch a change, fo there is nothing more glorious than to keep up an uniformity in his actions, and preferve the purity in his character to the laft. The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal perfons ftill act in character, whatever the fate is which they undergo; for he, who has filled all the offices of life with dignity and honour till yefterday, and to-day forgets his duty, has done nothing.

It is obfervable, with regard to all well-policed ftates, that nothing has contributed more to the permanency of their profperous condition, than that noble love of fame and glory which they have endeavoured to cherish in the breasts of their fubjects. Rewarding merit, wherever found, is the main fpring of this paffion; and this paffion must be always laudable, as having a manifeft tendency to promote the welfare of the ftate. The great and good man, who is therefore ambitious of raifing, for the pleafure of his own mind, the noble fuperftru&ure of lasting fame, will renounce all felt efteem for any private views and intereft, fenfible that engaging in fuch mean and frivilous concerns will be of no advantage to his reputation, and that the public efteem is along worthy of his affections, is alone defirable; fince it is always a teftimony of the public gratitude, and, confequently, a proof of real merit. Thus he finds every thing poffible in his endeavours to merit the general eftcem; and, as the pride of commanding kings recompenfed the Romans for enduring the feverity of military difcipline, fo the noble pleafure of being ef teemed, comforts the illuflrious

man