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nor the method of propagating it, until they had both from the Divine Being.

Syngenes. So that we have corn, &c. only by tradition, without any natural faculty in the earth to produce it? By this means it may come at last to be lost; and then what will become of mankind, who, according to you, cannot subsist without it?

Tycherus. Fear not it is so necessary, that I'll engage the world will never suffer it to run out.

Syngenes. That is more than you can tell: for, though I grant you, that it is very good; yet there are other things on which mankind might subsist. You used the word weed some time ago, by which is commonly meant a useless or a noxious plant; but the application of such a term shews great ignorance in those who use it, and does no less dishonour to the Maker of the world. Is there any thing useless or hurtful in the creation? did God make those plants to vaunt his own power, or to incommode mankind? has he made any thing in this world but for any other reason, but our accommodation? forbear such expressions therefore, and consider, that as all his works are good, we might, if prejudice and custom did not hinder us, feed as well on one thing as another.

Tycherus. Could you make a meal out of that great stone that lies before you?

Syngenes. Out of that stone! No. Who ever thought of eating stones?

Tycherus. All things, therefore, are not fit for food; no, nor all plants. They were intended for various uses; and many of them not for the immediate use of man. Nay, some of them are undoubtedly hurtful in one respect, though they may be useful in another; and the mischief they do is no more inconsistent with the goodness of God, than the rest of the evil that is in the world. Whether God made all things for man I know not, no more than I do how to account for many things in the creation. I was not by when the world was made, nor have I been let into the secret causes of things since; all I can say, is, that there are many evils incident to this life, among which, we husbandmen cannot but reckon briers and thorns; so far are we from thinking a thicket as good as a vineyard; or a field over

grown with brambles, as beneficial as one enriched with a crop of wheat. If we might guess at the designs of our Maker, these thorns and brambles, and weeds of all kinds, might have been intended partly as a punishment for the wickedness of mankind, and partly to keep us busy, who if we had not that to do, might employ ourselves in something worse. But as we can neither trace the originals, nor account for the natures of all things, it is a surer way to reason from undeniable facts. The hurtful, or if you will have it so, the less useful plants, grow of themselves, while those, which we stand in more continual need of, are not to be obtained of the earth without a good deal of pains; but which, I think, it is worth one's while to take, on account of the support and pleasure they reward our toil with. These are truths which it is madness to deny; and those who will argue otherwise, I refer them to hunger for

an answer.

Syngenes. It is plain, that tillage is nonsense and impertinence, from the infinite disagreement there is about the manner of doing it: were such a thing necessary, it would have been made so plain to all men, that all would have known it, as naturally as they do, that opening one's eyes is necessary to sight. Shall that, on which life depends, be left to the corruption of human institution and tradition? There are an infinite variety of opinions about the cultivation of ground. Perhaps none of them is right; or if one of them be, how shall we find it out, and distinguish it from the rest? it is impossible to try them all; and it is vain to set about the work, unless one knew how to do it, so as to be sure of not miscarrying.

Tycherus. You may put as many subtle questions, and perplex yourself with as many difficulties as you please, I am obliged to give no other answer to them than this, that I cannot live without food; that food is not to be had without cultivating the earth; and that the methods of tillage, which my father practised himself, and recommended to us, have always proved successful, and been crowned with plentiful harvests. This is enough for me, and I think myself concerned no farther. As to the justification of our Maker's measures, in creating us under such or such circumstances, perhaps refined and curious speculations will

rather hinder than help us to do it properly. If things themselves be candidly consulted, we shall find them speaking the wisdom and goodness of their Creator in plainer and stronger terms, than those in use among the philosophers: If persons, I know no kind of men so well disposed to honour and love the Father of the world, as those who earn a plentiful subsistence for themselves and families by the honest sweat of their brows. They have health, and peace, and contentment, the greater part of which they owe to the necessity they are under of labouring for their subsistence, as appears from the more unhappy condition of those who are supported by the industry of others in a life of idleness. Had Providence given us all our food without labour, I am apt to think we had all been as unhealthful, and as unhappy as they.

Syngenes. The substance of what you have advanced on this subject, if I have rightly understood you, amounts to this; that thorns and brambles, and what you call weeds, spring naturally and plentifully from the earth; but, that corn, and other vegetables necessary to our support, must be had elsewhere, and planted in the ground, where it is impossible for them to thrive or flourish, unless the soil be prepared and kept clear for them with infinite labour. Pray now reconcile this with the wisdom and goodness of the first cause.

Tycherus. This I could do, were my understanding able to keep pace with the wisdom of our Maker. But there are a few things, which even you, with all your philosophical sagacity, will never be able thoroughly to apprehend. I have already endeavoured to justify this disposition of things from the usefulness of labour and industry to the mind, as well as body. But whether human nature did always require this exercise, or whether the earth was always under the same indisposition to afford us nourishment without labour, is what none of us can tell. Perhaps when the world was first made, the characters of its Maker's wisdom were more legible in it, than now. I have often apprehended a degeneracy in nature, to which I have been encouraged by the ancient fable of the sons of Titan, and the earth warring with the gods, and bringing a curse upon the earth, as a punishment for their rebellion. These

however, are conjectures, and such a I think it both vanity and presumption to indulge. If the divine wisdom has reserved these things as a secret, why should we impertinently pry into them? let us take the world as we find it, and not trouble our heads with points that are too high for our capacity, and no ways useful to us in our present condition.

Syngenes. It is very weak to found your defence on fables and old-wives tales.

Tycherus. I do not take the fable I spoke of literally, nor do I lay a positive stress on it in any sense: but I take matters of fact as I find them; and, if my way of accounting for them be weak or absurd, it is because I have always been conversant in facts and things, and, for the most part, little taken up in inquiring about their causes. If I have plenty of provision for my family, a sow to sacrifice to Ceres, and wherewithal to entertain my rural neighbours now and then of a holiday, I think myself beholden to the gods, and no way concerned to examine their conduct, or censure their providence. But I forget that I have something else to do than to stand here all day speculating and prating with one, who, it seems, has more interest with the earth than me, and can have his food from thence without labour.

Tycherus following experience, and Syngenes relying on his speculations, pursued their first resolutions; by which the one was, in a little time, reduced to extremity of want; and had the mortification to see his grounds overrun with weeds, brambles, and thorns, and far better qualified to feed a herd of swine, or shelter wild beasts, than support a family: while the lands of the other were covered with olive-yards, vineyards, and crops of corn, from whence he drew a comfortable subsistence for himself, his children, and other dependants.

ALLUSION XII.

ONCE on a time the earth complained to the ocean, concerning certain great disorders, committed by divers rivers and brooks, who, instead of confining themselves to their own channel, and hastening to pay their tribute to the sea, did nothing else but ramble about the fields, break down ditches and mearings, sweep away corn, hay, cattle, and even houses, form stinking pools and filthy morasses, and with infinite assurance attack the very capitals of potent empires driving the inhabitants from their dwellings, and spoiling their goods. This complaint, which had but too much truth in it, was heard with great attention by the ocean, and believed the more readily, because he himself had of a long time observed, that many bodies of water, both great and small, having been permitted to leave him for a space, contracted a fondness for the earth, and shewed plainly they cared not, if they never returned to him again. His displeasure at these things being made known, an assembly of the rivers was called, from which no stream, from the greatest to the smallest was absent.

The Euphrates being the oldest of rivers, presided in this assembly, and opened it with a speech, in which he set forth the causes of their being convened, namely, the cry of the earth against the rivers, and the displeasure of the ocean at the revolters and absentees. At the conclusion he gave it to them in charge, to consider maturely of these matters, and provide such remedies, as to their wisdoms should seem most proper and effectual.

The brooks, rivulets, and sewers, who, in order to make a figure in this assembly, had, the day before, borrowed of the clouds long flowing cloaks and full-bottomed periwigs, perceiving that a severe inquiry was forthwith to be made into their irregularities, followed the speech of the president with a hoarse discontented growl, which they soon raised to so loud a roar, that the cataracts of Mount Ararat or the Nile did but gently murmur in comparison of them. However, upon the entry of the Sun and Saturn, who came to

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