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look into the several inward perfections of cunning and sagacity, or what we generally call instinct, we find them rising after the same manner imperceptibly one above another, and receiving additional improvements, according to the species in which they are implanted. This progress in nature is so very gradual, that the most perfect of an inferior species comes very near to the most imperfect of that which is immediately above it.

The exuberant and overflowing goodness of the Supreme Being, whose mercy extends to all his works, is plainly seen, as I have before hinted, from his having made so very little matter, at least what falls within our knowledge, that does not swarm with life nor is his goodness less seen in the diversity than in the multitude of living creatures. Had he only made one species of animals, none of the rest would have enjoyed the happiness of existence: he has, therefore, specified in his creation every degree of life, every capacity of being: The whole chasm in nature, from a plant to a man, is filled up with divers kinds of creatures, rising one over another, by such a gentle and easy ascent, that the little transitions and deviations from one species to another are almost insensible. This intermediate space is so well husbanded and managed, that there is scarce a degree of perception.which does not appear in some one part of the world of life. Is the goodness, or wisdom of the Divine Being, more manifested in this his proceeding?

There is a consequence, besides those I have already mentioned, which seems very naturally deducible from the foregoing considerations. If the scale of being rises by such a regular progress, so high as man, we may, by a parity of reason, suppose that it still proceeds gradually through those

beings which are of a superior nature to him, since there is an infinitely greater space and room for different degrees of perfection between the Supreme Being and man, than between man and the most despicable insect. The consequence of so great a variety of beings which are superior to us, from that variety which is inferior to us, is made by Mr. Locke, in a passage which I shall here set down, after having premised, that notwithstanding there is such infinite room between man and his Maker for the creative power to exert itself in, it is impossible that it should ever be filled up, since there will be still an infinite gap or distance between the highest created being and the power which produced him.

"That there should be more species of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of sensible and material below us, is probable to me from hence, that, in all the visible corporeal world, we see no chasms, or no gaps. All quite down from us, the descent is by easy steps, and a continued series of things, that in each remove differ very little one from the other. There are fishes that have wings, and are not strangers to the airy region: and there are some birds that are inhabitants of the water, whose blood is cold as fishes, and their flesh so like in taste, that the scrupulous are allowed them on fish days. There are animals so near of kin both to birds and beasts, that they are in the middle between both amphibious animals link the terrestrial and aquatic together: seals live at land and at sea, and porpoises have the warm blood and entrails of a hog; not to mention what is confidently reported of mermaids or sea-men. There are some brutes that seem to have as much knowledge and reason as some that are called men; and the animal and vegetable king

doms are so nearly joined, that if you will take the lowest of one and the highest of the other, there will scarce be perceived any great difference between them: and so on till we come to the lowest and the most inorganical parts of matter, we shall find every where that the several species are linked together, and differ but in almost insensible degrees. And when we consider the infinite power and wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think that it is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great design and infinite goodness of the Architect, that the species of creatures should also, by gentle degrees, ascend upward from us towards his infinite perfection, as we see they gradually descend from us downward; which, if it be probable, we have reason then to be persuaded that there are far more species of creatures above us than there are beneath, we being in degrees of perfection much more remote from the infinite Being of God than we are from the lowest state of being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing; and yet of all these distinct species we have no clear distinct ideas."

In this system of being there is no creature so wonderful in its nature, and which so much deserves our particular attention, as man, who fills up the middle space between the animal and intellectual nature, the visible and invisible world, and is that link in the chain of beings which has been often termed the Nexus utriusque mundi. So that he who in one respect is associated with angels and arch-angels, may look upon a Being of infinite perfection as his father, and the highest order of spirits as his brethren, may, in another respect, say to corruption Thou art my father; and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister.

NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

No. 457.

(a) At this time the Secretary of the Treasury and Director of the Mint.

No. 462.

The Duke of Buckingham said, that "on premeditation Charles II. could not act the part of a king for a moment." No. 474.

(a) A horn being commonly used to administer potion

to horses.

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(a) Dr. Thomas Walker, head master of the Charter school, whose scholars Addison and Steele had been.

No. 494.

(a) Dr. Thomas Goodwin, one of the assembly of Divines who sat at Westminster. He attended Cromwell, his friend and patron, on his death-bed; and continued in the hope that the protector was not to die till he had ocular proof that he was mistaken.

No. 502.

(a) "I knew (says Mr. Fletcher) a very wise man who believed, that if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation."

(b) P. S. to Spectator, in folio.-There are, in the play of the Self-Tormentor of Terence, several incidents which would draw tears from a man of sense, and not one which would move his laughter.

No. 506.

(a) The Funeral, or Grief a-la-Mode, by Steele.

No. 512.

(a) A Satire, by Dryden, against the Monmouth faction.

No. 517.

(a) "Mr. Addison was so fond of this character, that a little before he laid down the Spectator (foreseeing that some nimble gentleman would catch up his pen the moment he quitted it,) he said to an intimate friend, with a certain warmth in his exp ession, which he was not often guilty of, By G, I'll kill Sir Roger, that nobody else may murder him, Accordingly the whole Spectator, No. 517, consists of nothing else but an account of the old knight's death, and some moving circumstances which attended it."

VOL. VIII.

28

ADVICE usually received with reluctance,

Affectation, described,

Afflictions, how to be alleviated,

tings meet with from the public,

Almighty, Aristotle's saying of his being,

Allegories: the reception the Spectator's allegorical wri-

Appearances, things not to be trusted for them,

No.

512

460

501

501

465

464

Audience, the gross of an audience of whom composed, 502
The vicious taste of our English audiences,

BAMBOO, (Benjamin) the philosophical use he resolves to

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Beings: the scale of, considered by the Spectator,

519

Biting, a kind of mongrel wit, described and exploded by

the Spectator,

504

Biton and Clitobus, their story related, and applied by

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Campbell, (Mr.)'the dumb fortune-teller, an extraordinary

person,

474

Charles II. his gaities,

462

Charity, the great want of it among Christians,

516

Chastity of renown, what,

480

Children, a multitude of them, one of the blessings of

the married state,

500

Cicero, the great Roman orator, his extraordinary super-

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Clarendon, (Lord) a reflection of that historian's,

Cloe, the idiot,

Clubs, the institution and use of them,

Coffee-house debates seldom regular or methodical,

Contemplation, the way to the mountain of the Muses,
Cot-queans described by a lady who has one for her hus-

Coverley, (Sir Roger de) an account of his death brought

485

466

474

476

501

514

482

517

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