BOOK III.
Of the Terraqueous Globe in particular, more especially the Earth.
Having thus taken a general Prospect of our Terraqueous Globe, I shall in this Book come to its Particulars. But here we have such an immense Variety presenting it self to our Senses, and such amazing Strokes of Power and Wisdom, that it is impossible not to be at a Stand, and very difficult to know where to begin, how to proceed, or where to end. But we must however attempt.
And for the more clear and regular proceeding on this copious Subject, I shall distribute the Globe into its own grand constituent Parts.
I. The Earth and its Appurtenances.
II. The Waters and Theirs.
The first of these only, is what at present I shall be able to take into this Survey.
And in Surveying the Earth, I intend,
1. To consider its constituent Parts, or Things peculiar to its self.
2. The Inhabitants thereof, or the several Kinds of Creatures that have their Habitation, Growth, or Subsistence thereon.
1. As to the Earth it self, the most remarkable Things that present themselves to our View, are,
1. Its various Moulds and Soils.
2. Its several Strata, or Beds.
3. Its very Subterraneous Passages, Grotto’s and Caverns.
4. Its Mountains and Vallies.
CHAP. I.
Of the Soils and Moulds in the Earth.
The various Soils and Moulds are an admirable and manifest Contrivance of the All-wise Creator, in making this Provision for the various Vegetables[a], and divers other Uses of the Creatures. For, as some Trees, some Plants, some Grains dwindle and die in a disagreeable Soil, but thrive and flourish in others; so the All-wise Creator hath amply provided for every Kind a proper Bed.
If some delight in a warm, some a cold Soil; some in a lax or sandy, some a heavy or clayie Soil; some in a Mixture of both, some in this, and that and the other Mould, some in moist, some in dry Places[]; still we find Provision enough for all these Purposes: Every Country abounding with its proper Trees and Plants[c], and every Vegetable flourishing and gay, somewhere or other about the Globe, and abundantly answering the Almighty Command of the Creator, when the Earth and Waters were ordered to their peculiar Place, Gen. i. 11. And God said, Let the Earth bring forth Grass, the Herb yielding Seed, and the Tree yielding Fruit after his kind. All which we actually see is so.
To this Convenience which the various Soils that coat the Earth are of to the Vegetables, we may add their great Use and Benefit to divers Animals, to many Kinds of Quadrupeds, Fowls, Insects, and Reptiles, who make in the Earth their Places of Repose and Rest, their Retreat in Winter, their Security from their Enemies, and their Nests to repose their Young; some delighting in a lax and pervious Mould, admitting them an easy Passage; and others delighting in a firmer and more solid Earth, that will better secure them against Injuries from without.