VI. They serve for the Harbour, Entertainment, and Maintenance of various Animals, Birds, Beafts, and Infects, that breed, feed, and frequent there; for the highest Tops and Pikes of the Alps themselves, are not destitute of their Inhabitants, the Ibex, or Stein-buck, the Rupicapra, or Chamois, among Quadru peds; the Lagopus among Birds; and I myfelf have obferved beautiful Papilio's, and ftore of other Infects, upon the Tops of fome of the Alpine Mountains. Nay, the highest Ridges of many of those Mountains, ferve for the Maintenance of Cattle for the Service of the Inhabitants of the Vallies: The Men there, leaving their Wives, and younger Children, below, do not, without fome Difficulty, clamber up the Acclivities, dragging their Kine with them, where they feed them, and milk them, and make Butter and Cheese, and do all the Daiery-work, in fuch forry Hovels and Sheds as they build there to inhabit in during the Summer Months: This I myself have seen and obferved in Mount Jura, not far from Geneva, which is high enough to retain Snow all the Winter.

The fame they do alfo in the Grifons Country, which is one of the highest Parts of the Alps, travelling through which I did not set Foot off Snow for four Days Journey, at the latter End of March.

VII. Thofe

VII. Those long Ridges and Chains of lofty and topping Mountains, which run through the whole Continents East and West, (as I have elfewhere obferved) ferve to ftop the Evagation of the Vapours to the North and South in hot Countries, condensing them like Alembick Heads into Water, and fo by a kind of external Distillation giving Original to Springs and Rivers; and likewife by amaffing, cooling, and conftipating of them, turn them into Rain; by thofe Means rendring the fervid Regions of the Torrid Zone habitable.

This Difcourfe concerning the Ufe of Moun

tains, I have made use of in ano* The Diffo-. ther Treatife; but because it is lution of the World. proper to this Place, I have, with fome Alterations and Enlargements

here repeated it.

I had almost forgotten that Use they are of to Mankind, in ferving for Boundaries and Defences to the Territories of Kingdoms and Common-wealths.

A fecond Particular I have made choice of, more exactly to furvey and confider, is the Body of Man: Wherein I fhall endeavour to discover fomething of the Wisdom and Goodnefs of God; First, by making fome general Obfervations concerning the Body. Secondly, by running over and difcourfing upon its principal Parts and Members.

1. Then

1. Then in general, I fay, the Wisdom and Goodness of God appears in the erect Pofture of the Body of Man, which is a Privilege and Advantage given to Man, above other Animals. But though this be fo, yet I would not have you think, that all the Particulars I fhall mention are proper only to the Body of Man, divers of them agreeing to many other Creatures. It is not my Bufinefs to confider only the Prerogatives of Man above other Animals, but the Endowments and Perfections which Nature hath conferred on his Body, though common to them with him. Of this Erection of the Body of Man, the Ancients have taken Notice as a particular Gift and Favour of God.

Pronaq; cùm fpectent Animalia cætera terram, Os homini fublime dedit, cœlumq; tueri Fuffit, & erectos ad Sydera tollere vultus.

Ovid. Metam. I.

And before him, Tully in his fecond Book De Nat. Deorum.

Ad hanc providentiam natura tàm diligentem tamq; folertem adjungi multa poffunt, è quibus intelligatur quanta res hominibus à Deo, quamq; eximia tributa funt, qui primùm eos humo excitatos, celfos & erectos conftituit, ut Deorum cognitionem cœlum intuentes capere poffent. Sunt enim è terra homines, non ut incola atq; habi

tatores,

tatores, fed quafi fpectatores fuperarum rerum atq; cæleftium, quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet.

Man being the only Creature in this fublunary World, made to contemplate Heaven, it was convenient that he should have fuch a Figure or Situs of the Parts of his Body, that he might conveniently look upwards. But to say the Truth in this refpect of contemplating the Heavens, or looking upwards, I do not fee what Advantage a Man hath by this Erection above other Animals, the Faces of most of them being more fupine than ours, which are only Perpendicular to the Horizon, whereas fome of theirs ftand reclining. But yet two or three other Advantages we have of this Erection, which I fhall here mention.

First, It is more Commodious for the fuftaining of the Head, which being full of Brains, and very heavy (the Brain in Man being far larger in Proportion to the Bulk of his Body, than in any other Animal) would have been very painful and wearifome to carry, if the Neck had lain parallel or inclining to the Ho

rizon.

Secondly, This Figure is moft convenient for Profpect, and looking about one. A Man may fee further before him, which is no fmall Advantage for avoiding Danger, and discovering whatever he searches after.

Thirdly,

Thirdly, The Conveniency of this Site of our Bodies will more clearly appear, if we confider what a pitiful Condition we had been in, if we had been conftantly neceffitated to ftand and walk upon all Four; Man being by the Make of his Body, of all Quadrupeds (for now I must compare him with them) the most unfit for that kind of Inceffas, as I fhall fhew anon. And befides that, we should have wanted, at least in a great Measure, the Use of our Hand, that unvaluable Inftrument, without which we had wanted most of thofe Advantages we enjoy as reasonable Creatures, as I fhall more particularly demonftrate afterwards.

But it may be perchance objected by fome, that Nature did not intend this Erection of the Body, but that it is fuperinduced and artificial; for that Children at first creep on all Four, according to that of the Poet,

Mox Quadrupes, rituque tulit fua membra fera

rum.

Ovid.

To which I answer, that there is so great an Inequality in the Length of our Legs and Arms, as would make it extreamly inconvenient, if not impoffible, for us to walk upon all Four, and set us almost upon our Heads; and therefore we see that Children do not creep upon their Hands and Feet, but upon their

Hands