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Smalleft Lineaments exact,

In all the Liveries deck'd of Summer's Pride,
With Spots of Gold and Purple, Azure and Green *.

"How perfect the Polish, and how high the Fi"nifhing, of that little Weapon!-This Piece of defenfive Armour, how fkilfully contrived, and "how curioufly wrought! Here, rifing into little 66 Ridges, like the Boffes of a Buckler; fitted to repel Injuries. There, fcooped into little Cavi"ties, defigned, I suppose, to diminish its Weight;

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that the Coat of Mail may not incumber, even "while it defends, the puny Wearer. What I "took to be a whitish despicable Rag, is the neatest "Fan, I ever beheld. Mounted on Sticks + in"imitably tapering and flender. Tinged with all "the foft and lovely Colours of the moft gloffy "Mother of Pearl.-But, what astonishes me more

than all, is the View of that coloured Duft; "which your Inftrument has turned into a Clufter "of Feathers. Every one wrought off with a Re"gularity and a Delicacy, that are beyond the "Power of Defcription. The finest Stroke drawn "by the Italian Pen, compared with the extreme Shaft, is broad and bulky as an Admiral's Maft. A Speck of Leaf-gold, could "it be weighed againft the exquifite Attenuations "of the Vane ‡, would feem more substantial and "ponderous than yonder Marble Slab.

"Minutenefs of the

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* MILTON, Book VII.

66 How

Thefe Sticks, are the little Ribs, which fupport, at proper Intervals, the fine tranfparent Membrane of the

Wing.

Vane is the feathery Part of a Quill.

"How nice, even to a Prodigy, must be the Me"chanifm of the animalcule Race! I fee Globules, I "fee Tides of Blood, rolling through Mæanders in"expreffibly finer, than the finest Hair.-Stranger "ftill! I fee Sholes of active Creatures, expatiating "in a fingle Drop of Water*: taking their Pastime "amidst such a scanty Canal, as unftraitened and "as much at large, as Leviathan in the Abyffes of "the Ocean. A whole Kingdom of these Crea"tures, though collected into a Body, are quite un"difcernable by the naked Eye. What then must "be the Size of every Individual? Yet in every In<dividual there is a complete Syftem of Limbs; "each Limb must have Muscles and Nerves; each "Nerve must have Sense and Strength; and all

thefe are affembled, though not crouded, in a "living Atom. To reflect upon the Texture of

Veffels, and the Operation of Organs, fo com"plex, fo numerous, yet fo inconceivably minute; "how it awakens Admiration! Fills me with Re"verence of the Almighty MAKER! and yields "a Pleasure, infinitely fuperior to all the modifh · Amuse

In a fingle Drop of Water, Dr. Hook is faid to have discovered, with his Microscope, eight Millions two hundred and eighty thousand Animalcules.-This is mentioned, because it is the prevailing Philofophy of the Age. Though I must confefs, that Mr. Gautier feems to have gone a confiderable Way, towards giving it another Turn, As He has proved, before a learned Affembly at Paris, That the Vermiculares of Lewenhoeck, and the living Molecule of Mr. de Buffon, were only Balls of Air agitated by the fermenting of the Seed. If fo, it is not impoffible, but Dr. Hook's Animalcula may be nothing more than Balls of Air, agitated by the Fermentation of the Pepper.

Be this as it will, the young Lady's Remarks on the Wonders of Mechanifm in the animalcule Creation, I believe, will never be controverted,

"Amusements of our Sex!-Your Difcoveries of "Life in Miniature, have given me a Disgust of, "what is called, High Life, and its folemn Fop"peries. You have spoiled me, Theron, for a fa"fhionable Trifler. I fhall no longer relish the "dull Oeconomy of the Fan, or the poor Parade "of the Snuff-box.'

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Afp. Have You nothing to say of the Telescope? -I believe, it must be my Province to celebrate this admirable Invention; and I wish I could do it, with Manilia's brilliant Imagination.-If the Microfcope leads Us downward, to the curious Secrets of the animalcule Creation; the Telescope bears Us upward, to the grand Peculiarities of the starry Regions. The Eye, conducted by this wonderful Guide, vifits a Variety of majeftic Orbs, which would otherwise be loft in unmeasurable Tracts of Ether.-This, far more furprising than the Discoveries of Columbus, has found out new Colonies of Worlds, in every Quarter of the nocturnal Skies. This has placed a glittering Crefcent, on the Brow of one of the Planets; and has given others a most stately Train of Attendants +.

Tell me, Theron; could You difcern the full Choir of the Conftellations, or diftinguish the variegated Face of the Moon, without the Aid of your Telescopic Tube? Could You, with your unaffifted Eye, get a Sight of Jupiter's Satellites, or procure a Glimpse of Saturn's Ring?-Without that fupplementary Aid to our Sight, they are quite imperceptible; though the Satellites of the former, are incomparably more magnificent, than the Retinue of all the Monarchs in the World;

*The Planet Venus. and Saturn.

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The Satellites of Jupiter

World; and compared with the Ring of the latter, all the Bridges on ten thousand Rivers, are less than the Ferule of your Cane.

As the Telescope to the Eye, fo is Revelation to the Understanding. It discovers Truths, which exclufive of fuch a Difcovery, had been for ever hid from the moft fagacious Minds.-'Tis ftrange to the unlearned Obferver, that this ponderous Globe of Earth and Seas, fhould wheel its rapid Circuit round the Sun. But the Telescope has rendered this Fact clear to a Demonstration.-'Tis ftrange likewife to our natural Apprehenfions, that We should die in Adam, and be undone by our firft Parents Difobedience, Nor lefs fo, that We fhould be made alive in CHRIST, and derive our Recovery from his imputed Righteoufnefs. But Revelation makes this Doctrine as certain, as it is comfortable.

Ther. Does Revelation make it certain ?—This is a Point not yet establifhed, but taken for granted. I rather apprehend, that Revelation, in no Place maintains it, in many Places difavows it.-During your Abfence, Afpafio, I have spent some Time in fearching the Scriptures, with a particular View to this Tenet. I can find no fuch Expreffion in the whole Bible, as the Imputation of CHRIST's " Righteousness. If it was fo leading an Article, as You reprefent; furely, it could not have been entirely forgotten by the infpired Writers, nor utterly excluded from their Body of Divinity.

Afp. The very identical Expreffion may not occur, and yet the Doctrine be abundantly taught. I believe, You never met with the Word Refurrection, in any Part of the Pentateuch; nor ever read the Phrase Satisfaction, in all the New Teftament. Yet our

LORD

LORD fully proved the Truth of the former, from the Writings of Mofes; and You Yourself have acknowledged the latter, to be the unanimous Senfe of the Apoftles and Evangelifts.

In the Epistle to the Romans, We have express and repeated Mention of a Righteousness imputed. What or whofe Righteousness, can be the Subject of this Affertion?-Not the Righteousness of Angels. They are a fuperior Class of Beings, and have no fuch intimate Connection with our Nature.-Not the Righteoufnefs of eminent Saints. This is the exploded Error of Popery; and furnishes the Romish Zealots with that Chimera of Arrogance and Folly, Works of Supererogation.-Not any Righteousness of our own: for, it is pofitively declared, to be without Works*; in which no Works of our own have any Concurrence, or the leaft Share. What other Righteoufnefs then can be meant, but the Righteoufnefs of our great SUSTITUTE, SURETY, and SAVIOUR? Who took our Nature; difcharged our Debt; and is therefore ftyled, JEHOVAH our Righteousness +.

Ther. This feems contrary to the whole Tenour of the facred Inftructions. What fays the Prophet? When the wicked Man turneth away from his Wickedness that He hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, He fhall fave his Soul alive ‡.-Here, that greatest of Bleffings, the Salvation of the Soul, is afcribed to a Departure from Evil, and a Perfeverance in Good: to a real Alteration in a Man's own Temper and Conduct, not to any fanciful Application of fome tranfmiffive Righteoufnefs from Another.

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Afp.

* Rom. iv. 6. xviii. 27.

+ Jer. xxiii. 6.

1 Ezek.

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