Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/120

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78
An Antidote Against Atheism
Book II.

13. For is not the Fishe's wanting Feet, (as we observed before) she being sufficiently supply'd with Fins in so thick an Element as the Water, as great an Argument for a Providence, as so light a Bird's wanting Feet in that thinner Element of the Aire, the extreme lightness of her furniture being approportionated to the thinness of that Element? And is not the same Providence seen, and that as conspicuously, in allotting but very short Legs to those Birds that are called Apodes (both in Plinie and Aristotle,) upon whom she has bestow'd such large and strong Wings, and a power of flying so long and swift, as in giving no Legs at all to the Manucodiata, who has still a greater power of Wing and lightness of body?

And as for the Cavities on the back of the Male and in the breast of the Female, is that design of Nature any more certain and plain then in the Genital parts of Male and Female in all kind of Animals? What greater Argument of Counsel and purpose of fitting one thing for another can there be then that? And if we should make a more inward search into the contrivances of these parts in an ordinary Hen, and consider how or by what force an Egge of so great growth and bigness is transmitted from the Ovarium through the Infundibulum into the processus of the uterus, (the Membranes being so thin and the passage so very small to see to) the Principle of that Motion cannot be thought less then Divine. And if you would compare the protuberant Paps or Teats in the females of Beasts with that Cavity in the Breast of the she-Manucodiata, whether of them think you is the plainer pledge of a knowing and designing Providence?

And lastly, for the Strings that are conceived to hold together the Male and Female in their Incubiture, what a toy is it, if compared with those invisible links and ties that engage ordinary Birds to sit upon their Eggs, they having no visible allurement to such a tedious service?


Chap. XII.

1. That there is not an ampler Testimony of Providence then the structure of mans Body. 2. The safeness of the fabrick of the Eyes. 3. Their exquisite fittedness to their use. 4. The superadded advantage of Muscles to the Eye. 5. The admirable, contrivance of Muscles in the whole Body. 6. The fabrick of the Heart and of the Veins. 7. Of the Teeth and of the Joynts, of the Arms and Legs. 8. Of the hinder parts of the Body, and Head, Vertebræ, Nails, Bones, &c. 9. That there is proportionably the same evidence of Providence in the Anatomie of all Bodies as in that of Man. 10. The sottishness of them that are not convinced from these Considerations. 11. Of the Passions in Man, and particularly that of Devotion. 12. Of the Passions of Animals, and their Usefulness to themselves; 13. As also to Man. The ridiculous Antipathie of the Ape to the Snail. 14. How inept and frustraneous a passion Religion would be in Man, if there were neither God nor Spirit in

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