of nature; and whose perspective was perfectly correct, according to the rules of inordinate self-love, or falsehood; diminishing all objects, as they lay more distant from this central point of self. I saw that the whole world was enchanted by the pleasing sorceries of these cunning witches, who carefully preserved the delusions of moral perspective in all their pieces; and that all men greedily bought their specious and fascinating, but dangerous delusions.

On the other hand I saw, that right reason, founded on divine truth, was a studious, sober, accurate delineator of charts and maps; in which every object was represented according to its real comparative magnitude and situation, and in its proper latitude and longitude, or morality and religion*; and that one of the least of those faithful plans was of more value than an hundred of the deceitful lies of the landscape painters, or romance writers. But as these useful charts wanted the high but

* Latitude is truly emblematic of morality, and longitude of religious truth; because the sun is a shadow of divine truth and love, and the earth is an emblem of man. Hence the dominion of religion (whether true or false) is from the rising to the setting of the sun; and the extent of morality is from the north of self-love to the south of social love, whether the true or the false, from Poles to Equator. Morality is ascertained simply, by an equal balance, or meridian observation, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." But to discover the true longitude of true religion, is a much more difficult task.

false colouring, the striking effects of exaggerated light and shade, the seducing imagery, and flattering perspective of the landscapes; so no one admired, few understood, and none purchased them, except a few navigators or geographers, for purposes of mere utility*. From these causes it necessarily followed, that right reason was suffered to starve, and the Bible to moulder, for want of employment; whilst the two deceitful, vain painters, the spiritual adulterer, and whore, were lodged in palaces, and universally adored as idols and prophets.

When we came to cross rivers, I again saw the necessity of a faithful and skilful guide at every step, to point out the proper fords, and to mark the quicksands, which often lay thick on each side, and caught those whose rashness, obstinacy, and self-conceit, despised wholesome 'caution, and chose to take a bye path of their own. Also, to discriminate the shallow from the deep waters (of doctrine) which would overwhelm the ignorant and presumptuous; and to point out the sands and rocks of offence.

All this was a sermon to me in the genuine language of nature, which I was enabled to translate, and which I found to be truly Christian-like; and it all tended to this one point, or

Navigation is the emblem of metaphysics, and geography is the emblem of moral philosophy; as astronomy is of religion, or the science of the heavens.

centre (not focus*) of truth, viz. that fallen man was utterly blind and feeble in himself, and yet surrounded on all sides by inevitable snares, and insurmountable obstacles, in the road to eternal life and happiness; and that, therefore, it was downright insanity, for such a worm, blind as he was in himself to spiritual truth, to determine to grope out his dangerous way through all these obstacles, by his own proper wisdom and power.

Thus every object in nature was to me a parable full of instruction; but my notice was more particularly atttracted by the animal creation; amongst which "the villain spider," as Thomson calls him, arrested my attention in the most forcible manner. This loathsome insect always, but then more particularly, appeared to me to be a strong and admirable emblem in miniature of my great adversary," the lord of flies, Beelzebub.” His extreme quickness of sight, and feeling, his continual watchfulness, profound dissimulation, and patient lying in wait; his cunning, fierceness, and cruelty, his rapid motions, strength and activity; his powers of titillation as well as of

*As circular, and spherical, square and cubic geometry, is symbolical of right reason, and divine truth; so conic sections, and all oblique and elliptical measurements and movements, are emblematic of error and falsehood.

+ Spiders in India are different things from what they

L

strongly seizing, in his long legs, with which he appears to tickle his violent captives, and makes them whirl round, while he folds them in the shroud of death, spun out of his own bowels. Also, the beauty, regularity, and elastic force, of his mathematical snares; some of which, viz. those suspended in gardens, have the form of the hexagon, and equilateral triangle*, or are circles so divided by radii, which are joined all round by parallel lines that form so many distinct and concentric polygons! How fine and fluctuating, yet how strong and sure, are these snares, in which poor silly flies, so sportive, thoughtless, and wanton, so much like human flies, are continually caught! Another very striking analogy in the natural his

t

1

are in England. In India their bulk, strength, activity, and boldness are wonderful, and almost incredible, as well as their venom.

* The equilateral triangle, or chord of 120°, and the hexagon, or chord of 60°, are, in my Essay on the analogies of geometry, shown to be emblems of the letter of the law without the Spirit. It is in this snare, as in a cobweb, that the devil catches the souls of men; for the letter being only equal to the radius, whilst the spirit of it is equal to the sinus totus, or chord of 90, they are enabled for a time to conform to the letter, (as legal hypocrites) externally, until they are tempted to transgress the letter openly, which being felonious, they are hanged. Thus "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," for "the Lord and His Gospel are that Spirit."-2 Cor. iii.

tory of spiders and flies, is this: the latter are very fond of the light, and continually endeavouring to approach to it; on which account the crafty spiders generally spread their nets in the windows, by which policy they catch multitudes of those insects. It is evident, that the human flies who are so fond of the light are natural philosophers; and those of the infidel order, are therefore continually entangled in the snares of the lord of flies, whilst vainly [seeking for light in nature, whereby they may attain to perfect and unbounded liberty.

1

་

All these reflections, and many more which continually rushed into my mind upon the sight of every natural object, appeared to me to be so applicable, and upon the whole so rational, as well as beautiful, and corresponded so entirely with the truths of divine revelation, 'or the parables of Holy Scripture, that I could not, in my lucid intervals, refuse to believe them. But as I was, on the other hand, extremely fearful of the blindness and fallibility of my own understanding, and conscious of the narrow limits of my own knowledge; and as I dreaded, and even magnified by a faithless fear, the wonderful powers of delusion and seduction of my enemy; so I resolved by no means to dwell too much upon, or regularly to investigate, these curious things, lest I should fall at unawares into his snares as before; for