And in the first Place, as to the Business of Ornament, Beauty, and Pleasure, I may appeal to all Men’s Senses, whether the grateful Variety of Hills and Dales, be not more pleasing than the largest continued Planes. Let those who make it their Business to visit the Globe, to divert their Sight with the various Prospects of the Earth; let these, I say, judge whether the far distant Parts of the Earth would be so well worth visiting, if the Earth was every where of an even, level, globous Surface, or one large Plane of many 1000 Miles; and not rather, as now it is, whether it be not far more pleasing to the Eye, to view from the Tops of the Mountains the subjacent Vales and Streams, and the far distant Hills; and again from the Vales to behold the surrounding Mountains. The elegant Strains and lofty Flights, both of the ancient and modern Poets on these Occasions, are Testimonies of the Sense of Mankind on this Configuration of the Earth.
But be the Case as it will as to Beauty, which is the least valuable Consideration, we shall find as to Convenience, this Configuration of the Earth far the most commodious on several Accounts.
1. As it is the most salubrious, of great use to the Preservation or Restoration of the Health of Man. Some Constitutions are indeed of so happy a Strength, and so confirmed in Health, as to be indifferent to almost any Place or Temperature of the Air: But then others are so weakly and feeble, as not to be able to bear one, but can live comfortably in another Place. With some, the finer and more subtile Air of the Hills doth best agree, who are languishing and dying in the feculent and grosser Air of great Towns, or even the warmer, and vaporous Air of the Valleys and Waters: But contrarywise, others languish on the Hills, and grow lusty and strong in the warmer Air of the Valleys.
So that this Opportunity of shifting our Abode from the warmer and more vaporous Air of the Valleys, to the colder and mote subtile Air of the Hills, or from the Hills to the Vales, is an admirable Easement, Refreshment, and great Benefit to the valetudinarian, feeble part of Mankind, affording those an easy and comfortable Life, who would otherwise live miserably, languish and pine away.
2. To this salutary Conformation of the Earth, we may add another great Convenience of the Hills, and that is, in affording commodious Places for Habitation; serving (as an eminent Author[] wordeth it) “as Skreens to keep off the cold and nipping Blasts of the northern and easterly Winds, and reflecting the benign and cherishing Sun-Beams, and so rendering our Habitations both more comfortable and more chearly in Winter; and promoting the Growth of Herbs and Fruit-Trees, and the Maturation of the Fruits in Summer.”
3. Another Benefit of the Hills is, that they serve for the Production of great Varieties of Herbs and Trees[c]. And as there was not a better Judge of those Matters, so I cannot give a better Account of this Convenience, than in the Words of the last cited famous Author, the late most eminent and learned Mr. Ray[d], (who hath so fully discussed this Subject I am upon, that it is scarce possible to tread out of his Steps therein). His Observation is, “That the Mountains do especially abound with different Species of Vegetables, because of the great Diversity of Soils that are found there, every Vertex or Eminence almost, affording new Kinds. Now these Plants, (saith he,) serve partly for the Food and Sustenance of such Animals as are proper to the Mountains, partly for medicinal Uses; the chief Physick, Herbs and Roots, and the best in their Kinds growing there: It being remarkable, that the greatest and most luxuriant Species in most Genera of Plants are native of the Mountains.”
4. Another Convenience which my last named learned Friend observes[e] is, “That the Mountains serve for the Harbour, Entertainment, and Maintenance of various Animals; Birds, Beasts and Insects, that breed, feed and frequent there. For, (saith he) 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 Quadrupeds; the Lagopus among Birds. And I my self (saith he) have observed beautiful Papilio’s, and Store of other Insects upon the Tops of some of the Alpine Mountains. Nay, the highest Ridges of many of these Mountains, serve for the Maintenance of Cattle, for the Service of the Inhabitants of the Valleys.”
5. Another Thing he observes is, “That those long Ridges and Chains of lofty and topping Mountains, which run through whole Continents East and West[f], serve to stop the Evagation of the Vapours to the North and South in hot Countries, condensing them like Alembick Heads into Water and so (according to his Opinion) by a kind of external Distillation giving original to Springs and Rivers; and likewise by amassing, cooling and constipating of them, turn them into Rain, by those Means rendring the fervid Regions of the torrid Zone habitable.”
To these might be added some other Uses and Conveniences[g]; as that the Hills serve to the Generation of Minerals and Metals[h], and that in them principally are the most useful Fossiles found; or if not found and generated only in them, yet at least all these subterraneous Treasures are most easily come at in them: Also their Use to several Nations of the Earth, in being Boundaries and Bullwarks to them. But there is only one Use more that I shall insist on, and that is,