TWO ESSAYS SENT IN A LETTER from Oxford, TO A Nobleman in London.  
The First concerning some Errors about the Creation, General Flood, and the Peopling of the World. In Two Parts.  
The Second concerning the Rise, Progress, and Destruction of Fables and Romances. With the State of Learning.  
By L. P. Master of Arts.  Edita Doctrinâ Sapientum Templa Serena. Lucret. Lib. 2. 
LONDON: Printed, and are to be Sold by R. Baldwin, near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-Lane. MDCXCV.   

AN APOLOGY For Writing the Following ESSAYS.  
My LORD,  
THE universal disposition of this Age is bend upon a Rational Religion; the fierceness of Bigotry is in good measure calmed and allayed; therefore I venture out upon this Pacifick Sea, hoping to reach my Port without any storm or hardship. Most Nations in Europe allow of a Liberty and Latitude in Natural Philosophy; Copernicus, Galileo, Campanella, Mersennus, Gassendus, Cartesius, and many others, are not esteemed the worse Christians, because they contradict the Scriptures in Physical or Mathematical Problems; the Sacred Writers spoke to a Generation of Men, who were never famous in Arts and Sciences; therefore they adapted all their say to the vulgar Ideas of that Time and Nation; their design being not to compose a Natural system of the World, but to establish the true Theocracy, and good Morals. What unjust Calumnies have been thrown upon the Worthy Master of the , upon the account of his Theory of the Earth, and his Archaeologia, (Pieces of admirable Workmanship) which his Enemies may be ashamed of, as some were upon the discovery of the Antipodes and the New World?  
The Philosophic History of the Bible, is not always to be embraced; for what an outcry against Mr. Hobbs! because he described God Almighty as Corporeal, though Moses and the Scriptures had done so before him. Things are denominated Heresy and Atheism, not by any certain Rules of Truth, or Falsehood, but according to the Caprice, or Interests of Sects and Parties: So the Christians were called Athei by the Pagans, because they did not Sacrifice, nor consult Oracles, nor Worship Images: So one Nation calls another Barbarous, because different in Habit, Manners, Diet, and Ceremonies. The Philosophers of Athens styled one another Heretics, as they frequented such a School, or Academy; so in England we give Nicknames, according to the Company we keep, or the Books we read, or as we vary in our Dreams, or Ideas, or in our Designs. Non omnes, probè nosti, veritatem metiuntur aut estimant rationum pondere & momentis, sed affectibus abrepti aut prejudicijs occaecati, quasi clausis Oculis, de rerum coloribus decernunt. Saepe etiam ad concitandam invidiam Authoris mentem aut verba in alienas partes detorquent. Haec Signa homines solent variè interpretari, & trahere ad sua vota, aut spes, aut metus.  
So, My Lord, I will conclude this Apology, which I thought necessary to premise in order to levelly the way to a fair reception and interpretation of these Essays, which come from one, whom your Lordship knows to be well affected to the Church of England, and not in the least tinctured with Atheism; a crime unjustly charged upon many excellent Men, who have a more than ordinary Zeal and Veneration for the Supreme, Alwise, and All-Powerful Being. I have Travelled many Countries, yet could never meet with any Atheists, which are few, if any; all the noise and clamour is against Castles in the Air; a sort of War, like that of Don Quixotte, with the Windmills. So I take my leave, and farewell; being,  
My LORD, Your Lordship's Most Devoted Servant, L. P.   

THE FIRST ESSAY, CONCERNING Some Errors about the First Creation, General Flood, and the Peopling of the World.  
In Two Parts.  

First PART.  
THE common History of the first Chaos, of the Universal Deluge, and of the Peopling of the Old and New World, is so well known to every body, that any Account of them in this place will seem unnecessary; especially to you who has read so many excellent Writers upon them, as Judge Hales of the Origination of Mankind; Dr. Burnet's most ingenious Theory; Mr. Ray's Three Physico-Theological Discourses, etc. Therefore I will confine myself, in this short Essay, to a plain Examination of matter of Fact, as it stands in Nature, and as it appears to our Senses; which, I know, will please you best, who long ago began to deride Hypotheses, and monstrous Traditions, invented and instilled in Cells, in Nurseries, or in Schools, the fountains of Mythology; which hath in all Ages infected the purity of Nature with Fables, Chimeras, and Romances; and even to that degree, that God Almighty himself (Blessed for ever) must be made use of upon all occasions to invert and confound his own settled Order of Causes, and to commit absurdities in Nature, either to make good an uncertain Tradition, or to corroborate a vain Fancy. Non sunt ij aut scientiâ aut Arte divini, sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque Harioli, aut inertes aut insani, aut quibus Egestas imperat; Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant Viam. Cicero de Divinatio.  
But to come close to the Point: We have been told of old, That at the first Creation all was mingled in a fluid Chaos; and that in process of time there came on gradual Separations, Sediments, and that concreted Mass, which we now call the World. This made some great Philosophers 
* See Mr. Ray's Three Physico-Theol. Discourses, etc.  conclude, That the Shells, Teeth, and other Bones of Fishes, were embowelled in the Beds, or Strata of the Earth, upon the gradual, or leisurely separation, or draining of the Waters after the First Creation. We have also been assured, that these Shells, and Bones, and Plants, were dispersed all the Earth over, and lodged deep in its Bowels, in Beds, or Strata, at the Universal Deluge 
† See Steno's Prodromus, Translated by Mr. Oldenburg. Dr. Hooks Micrograph. Ray's Travels, from p. 113. to p. 130. Plot of Oxfordshire, etc. : But how far either of these Opinions, or Hypotheses, will stand an ordinary Test, you will soon judge, after your wont manner, Physically, Mechanically, Experimentally; for I know you rely no further upon Authority, than as it is agreeable to common Sense, or to the ordinary Providence of God Almighty.  
The most rational way to examine these Problems, is by the Laws of Gravity, or by the hydrostatics; because the Controversy is about the descent of Solids in Fluids; in the managing of which there is no need of any extraordinary or Miraculous intervention of the first Infinite Cause, the principles and rules being originally established by it; and though we may grant that the first Chaos and the universal Flood might be miraculously brought about; yet there is no colour for thinking that the Hand of God would confound its own Laws (where there was no manner of necessity) in forming and reforming the Machine we call the Universe; especially in the Phaenomena of Gravity, for settling this Terraqueous Globe of ours, in the Figure and Texture we now behold it.  
Suppose then all the Solids dissolved, or intermixed, floating and subsiding in the great Fluid of the Chaos, or in the vast Abyss of the Deluge; the most ponderous must subside first, deepest, or nearest the Centre; and the rest according to their several respective weights, or specific gravities must take their places in this new Bed, or Mass of Sediments. The Metals would be the lowest, the rest of the Fossils' above them, the Abyss of Water above these, and so on to the Animal and Vegetable Bodies; which could not Statically subside with parts heavier in Bulk, or in Specie.  
But let us view these Layers, or Strata of the Globe, as far as they appear to our Senses. The Metals are often at the top, Beds of Marble near the superficies, Vegetables, Testaceous and other Animal-like Bodies lower still; and the Abyss, or sphere of Water said to be lowest of all; an odd face of Sediments, a fantastical descent of Solids in a Fluid; neither Natural, nor Preternatural, nor Supernatural, without Design, or any End.  
Besides, the same Shells, and Marine-like Bodies, are not only found deep in Beds of Earth and Stone, of different specific Gravity; but also on the very superficies of the Earth itself, as Cockles, and Cornua Ammonis (the most ponderous) under which are several Layers of Earth lighter than they; if the latter (viz. Cornu Ammonis) is any Species of Testaceous Animal, it is either not extant at this day, or else lies deep in the bottom of the Sea remote from the Shores; where 'tis hard to conceive Brood's of such Shellfish, where there is such want of Air, of Food, and such a mighty pressure of Water, sufficient to squeeze and break much firmer Bodies.  
But perhaps the Water might be so kind as to dissever 
* See Dr. Woodward's late Essay. , or take to pieces the Adamantine Rocks, Porphyry, and Talc (insuperable to fire, and to most Inventions of Art) and to preserve at the same time her brittle Shells, and the tender Plants entire and whole, whilst the stubborn Mass of Fossils' was forced to yield and lie dissolved in a furious Abyss; this may pass with Romantic Readers, but scarce with any sound or thinking Philosophers.  
'Tis hard to conceive how Leaves, and light Shells should fall in Aequilibrio with the much heavier parts of Marbles, Minerals, and other Fossils', and be embodied with them in the same Beds, Layers, or Strata, by the Principles of the same specific Gravity, whose Laws are certain and constant. Crab's and Lobster's claws, and all light Shells whatsoever, are said very seldom to occur upon Land; because being left on the surface of the Earth after the Deluge, and so exposed to the Air, and other accidents, they were rotten and destroyed (Dr. Woodward in his Essay). To which 'tis answered, That the lightest Shells on our Shores, are the Echini; yet the Echinites of divers kinds or sorts (with respect to the number of Shells on our British Coasts) are the most common Fossil Shells, or Shell-stones of England, and they are often found at the depth of at least Three or Four Fathom, and that under Rocks of solid Stone; and as for joints of Crab's Claws, they have been found lodged about Six Fathom deep, upon the sinking of a Well.  
Coral, and the Astroites Vndulatus, or the Sea-Mushroom, are sometimes found sticking to these supposed Anti-deluvian Shells. Which is an Argument that the whole Mineral Kingdom (of which these are properly Members) was not dissolved in the Hodg-Podg, or Pudding of the Deluge.  
The Author of the late Essay censures Dr. Burnet for broaching and vending Opinions contrary to the sense of Scripture; yet he himself will be found to contradict the History of Moses: For whereas he gathers from his Anti-deluvian. Plants, that the Earth was not only totally drowned, but also dissolved sometime betwixt the 17th of May, and the end of the same Month; Moses tells us the Waters prevailed (i. e. as I understand it, the Flood increased) for 150 days, ere the Fountains of the Deep were shut up; nor was it necessary, in case the World was dissolved in a Fortnight's space, that it should Rain 40 days and 40 nights for the drowning of it. But 'tis no wonder to see Physical Theorists, and Hypothetical Speculators, grope and stumble in the dark, as sooon as they begin to desert the daylight of Sense, and to float out of all depth.  
Upon inquiries made into the bottom of the Sea by Divers, and Navigators, it appears to consist of inequalities of Rocks, Mountains, Valleys, Beds of Sand and Earth, of Fossils' and Plants, though of different kinds from those at Land. In this Aqueous part of the Globe, the Water is uppermost, whereas in the other 'tis lowermost; an Argument that the manner of the subsiding (or descent in the general Fluid at the Chaos, or Flood) of Solid Bodies, was quite different in these two parts of the Globe, and therefore not proceeding from the same Causes or Principles; whereas Nature is uniform in all her parts, and Providence Beautiful in her Symmetry.  
To conclude therefore the First Part of this Essay; I cannot but continue in my old Opinion, That the World was thus formed from the Beginning, no total Dissolution, nor any universal Inundation: Some particular great Changes have happened, as new Mountains by turning up of the Earth; some new Islands, especially at the Mouths of great Rivers, by their Sediments of Earth brought down from the Land; some new Lakes by Earthquakes, and some other Mutations from particular Floods, or Vulcano's; though a late Author will scarce allow of any of these sorts 
* Dr. Woodward in his Essay. ; nothing but a General Dissolution of the whole Terrestrial Globe will go down with him; the smaller Changes by Earthquakes not passing currant; though History and the Observations of Sense make for the latter, and only Dreams and Phantomes for the former.  
All these Marine-like Bodies digged out of the Bowels of the Earth, may, with more appearance of Reason, be peculiar sorts of Fossils', (as an Ingenious Writer supposes 
† Dr. Lister in Transact. Philosoph. and de Cochlit. ) or Natives, or Original Creatures of the Earth, (call them what you please) rather than Strangers, brought in by I know not what barbarous Inundations, and universal Dissolutions, and settled there by I know not what Laws, or Force, or Power; I am confident not by any Divine Appointment, for that acts more regularly, and more discreetly.  
I would gladly know why these Shell-like Bodies, or Plant-like Substances, may not be Congenial to the Earth. Plants will propagate on Land, and in Water, without any visible or manifest Seed; Shells will shoot, or grow in the Glands of Animals; and Infects may sometimes breed without Animal Parents, or Eggs, or Seed; therefore why not Testaceouslike Substances, or Shells themselves in Beds of Earth, or Stone, where they are found; rather than be brought and laid there by Fairies, or invisible Agents, that must turn Heaven and Earth up to make way for those Toys, and preserve them Miraculously in their Voyage thither?  
Thus have I done with this Problem. If you please to study and know it perfectly, you must consult many Authors: As,  
Fab. Columna de Purpur. & Glossopetris, with Dan. Major his Notes. 4 to Kiliae. 1675.  
Hook 's Micrography, and Lectures upon Spring.  
Steno 's Prodromus. Lat. and Eng. 8vo.  
Steno de Cane Carchariâ & Glossopetris. 8vo.  
Ray 's Topograph. Observations made in a Journey, etc. 8vo. From p. 113. to p. 131.  
Ray 's Three Physico-Theological Discourses, etc. 8vo. Second Edition, 1693.  
Grandius and Quirinus de Diluvio Vniversali à Testaceis Fossilibus. Venet. 1676. 4 to.  
Agostino Scylla Letter a circa 1 Corpi Marini Petrificati. 4 to Con molte figure. Napoli, 1670. As quoted by Mr. Ray, the Book being unknown to me.  
P. Boccone in his Recherches & Observe. Nat. 8vo. 1674.  
Dr. Plot 's Natur. Histor. of Oxfordshire. Fol.  
Dr. Lister in Philosoph. Transact. and de Cochlitis.  
Dr. Woodward in his Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth. 8vo. 1695.  
All the aforegoing Authors, except Dr. Lister, and Dr. Plot, stretch hard to fetch these Land Shells from the bottom of the Sea to the tops of Mountains, and into the deep entrails of the Earth, by the means of a Chaos, a Deluge, or Earthquakes; but all of them in different ways, and with what success, I think, I have made clear.  
But now we are upon this Subject, let us discourse a little with the Author of the late Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: Who says, p. 108. That the Teeth, Bones, and other Parts of Animal Bodies, as also the Trunks, Roots, and other Parts of Vegetables, were not dissolved in the Deluge, as all the Fossils' and Solids of the Earth were. Now if these Vegetable and Animal Parts of the Land floated entire and whole, Why do not we find greater quantities of them under ground? The Anti-diluvian Trees, and especially the Bones of Terrestrial living Creatures, would be more plentifully buried, or embodied under ground, than the remote Spoils of the Sea, which in some places must have Traveled Two or Three thousand Miles to get into their Land-Beds, and that too in a very short space: The Author (Dr. Woodward in his Essay) allowing but some time in the Month of May, for bringing about this mighty Universal Change; which if so quick, how will he bring together into one place so many distant and different Animals some thousands of Miles over both Sea and Land? And the Author will have a pretty piece of work to convey all these Species of living Creatures back again to their respective Continents and Islands, unless he keeps in Store all his Carriages, his ponton's, his Magazines, his Transport-Ships, and other Necessaries for long Marches and Navigations.  
I thought to have proceeded in an examination of his great Abyss of Waters, and his Subterraneous Fire over them; as also of his Origin of Springs, Rivers, Vapours and Rain, and of his manner of forming Metals; but I refer those Parts to abler Pens, who understand Distillation, the Calculation and Motions of Fluids', the Generation and Growth of Metals and other Fossils': However, I will touch a little upon the manner of stocking his New Globe a Second time, after his great beloved Catastrophe; which he extends to all the Regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, though only Part of Mesopotomia and Syria were Inhabited by the Antidiluvians, upon whose account he will have this Universal Dissolution of the whole Globe of Earth to be brought on; which is not agreeable to the usual methods of Providence, nor to the Wisdom of the Divine Nature; for what design could there be in destroying all the innocent dumb Creatures, and the Beauty of the Creation, in the Uninhabited Parts (which were above a Hundred to One, in respect of those Planted by the Anti-diluvian People) for the sake only of a few Wanton and Luxurious asiatics, who might have been drowned by a Topical Flood, or by a particular Deluge, without involving all the Bowels of the whole Mass, and the remote Creatures upon the face of the Earth, in their Ruin.   

THE SECOND PART OF THE First ESSAY: CONCERNING The Peopling and Planting the New World, and other remote Countries.  
THE Design of this Second Part, is not to calumniate, or diminish the Authority of Moses, who, without dispute, was one of the Greatest and Wisest Legislators that ever appeared in the World, not excepting Solon, or Lycurgus, or Numa. He brought a wandering Idolatrous Nation, to the Worship of One True God, and established many Excellent Laws amongst them: He adapted his History of the Creation and Deluge to their Capacities; and therefore it can be no Crime in one, who is no Jew, to Comment a little upon some parts of it, with a Christian plainness, and a Philosophical Liberty, founded upon Nature herself.  
The West-Indies, and the vast Regions lately discovered towards the South, abound with such variety of Inhabitants, and New Animals, not known or ever seen in Asia, Africa, or Europe, that the Origine of them doth not appear so clear as some late Writers pretend; especially seeing there are no Records or Monuments of their Transmigrations out of Asia, or any other known parts of the World, either before or after the Flood; and their differences from all the rest of the Globe, in Manners, Languages, Habits, Religions, Diet, Arts, and Customs, as well as in their Quadrupeds, Birds, Serpents, and Infects, render their Derivation very obscure, and their Origine uncertain, especially in the common way, and according to the vulgar Opinions of Planting all the Earth from one little Spot.  
The great Zeal to maintain a Jewish Tradition, put many Learned Christians upon the rack to make it out. Every corner is searched to find out a Word, a Rite, or a Custom, in order to derive from thence many Millions of different People. Some will have Norway, others Tartary and China, or some Western Parts of Africa, to be the Source and Seminary of Creatures, unknown and strange to those Climates. The Welshmen are not wanting in their Chimeras of Peopling Mexico with their Colonies; and perhaps they have better Authority than any can be produced for the rest. The Spaniards, because they found some Sticks and pieces of Wood laid Cross-ways, would needs have the Indians to be of Spanish Extraction. The Jews fancied the Americans to be Circumcised (their Prepuces being only eaten with the Pox) and therefore would have them to be of Jewish Race: But we will examine the chief of these Opinions with brevity and perspicuity.  
From Norway the Navigation is very difficult, even to our New strong built Ships; the vast Islands of Ice, and the Wether in those Seas must have been invincible to the little Boats or Vessels of those days; and the Journeys over Land through Greenland are impracticable by reason of the Mountains and Rocks of Ice and Snow; besides there is a great difference in the Colour, Numbers, in the Customs, and Mechanics of the Natives of Canada, New England, Virginia, etc. and of the Norwegians; no footsteps of Christianity to be found amongst the Northern Indians, which are said to Transmigrate in the Ninth or Tenth Century. All Nations agree in some Words, and in some Customs; therefore a resemblance in a few of them is no proof. But further, John de Laet assures us, That with great diligence he found a Mexican Dictionary, but could not obferve any Words to agree with any European Language. Besides, many Writers who resided a long time in the West-Indies, affirm, that there are so many different Languages and Dialects in the same Kingdom, that one Province doth not understand another, even in Peru and Brasil; and along the banks of the single River of Amazons there are above One hundred and sixty different Tongues and Nations, composed of infinite numbers of various People; so that this Country, with Peru and Mexico, might contend with any in Asia, not only in their Inhabitants, but in their Manufactures, and Mechanics, as well as in their Civil Governments; and they might with the same reason boast of their giving Birth to us, as we to them.  
The Origine of most, if not of all Nations, is wrapped up in fabulous Traditions; Records and Monuments are of late dates; and when we offer at the beginnings of things, we are swallowed up and lost in the darkness and depth of time. Arts, Inventions, and many other things might be lost in the Universal Devastations of Countries, and sometimes revived again in Revolutions.  
The Passage from Tartary into America, is as obscure as that from Norway, and the same difficulties lie against it; the stretching of the Tartarian Capes are unknown; but if they should be joined to the back of Northern America, the Journey would be very dangerous (if not impossible) to Colonies. The Tartars abound more with Horses than all the World besides, and cannot subsist without them; therefore it is very improbable they should swarm into America on foot (when they ride in all other parts) and their Offspring should be so affrighted with the sight of a Spanish Horse, that a 1000 Tartar-Indians should run away from a single Mounted Cavalier. The Land in Tartary, said to be the high Road for this Transmigration out of the Old into the New World, runs further North than Nova Zembla, or Greenland; and how the Animals, that cannot endure the extremity of Cold, should climb over inaccessible Mountains of Ice and Snow for many Thousands of Miles together, is hardly explicable to any thinking man; and that those Creatures, that live in the Frozen Continent, should not be able to Travel along with tender Strangers, and delicate Passengers, is scarce credible; Horses, Ermines, and Sables (that abound in Tartary) might have found a way much more easily than Indian Creatures. A man must press hard to strain Brasil, Peru, and Mexico, through frozen Seas, or congealed Deserts, made up of Snow from the beginning, and covered with Night for half the year.  
Neither is it probable that either Norwegians, Laplanders, Muscovites, Tartars, or the People of Jesse, should carry along with them Ravenous Beasts, or Venomous Serpents, or such Animals, as never flock into their Countries, as Lions, Tigers, Alligators, Monkeys, Apes, Parrots, etc.  
Navigations from China through the South Sea to America, are impossible to the Jonks of that Kingdom, which cannot carry Provisions for long Voyages; besides, the Northern Parts of the South Seas are too high for them, and the Trade-winds always contrary at East in the Latitudes of Peru and Mexico. The Compass (necessary in such sorts of Sailing by long Sea) could not be known to the Chineses in those Ages; besides, the Language of China consists all of Monosyllables, whereas those of Mexico and Peru have many. The Indians knew nothing of Style, Pen, Ink, Paper, or any manner of Writing (so common in the East) but reckoned the Antiquity of Time by strung Beads, Knots, and Pebbles: They had neither Bellows, Saws, nor Nails, though plenty of Iron Oar in the Country; but they knew not the way of separating, so long practised in the Old World, before their traditional passage out of it.  
From the Western Coasts of Africa, the Sailing is more easy, but then the Natives are most Negroes, or much blacker than the Americans, who have long Hair, little or no Beards, and are of an Olive Colour.  
But to come closer to the matter; the Americans had neither Horse, nor our sort of Cow, Sheep, nor our barking Dogs, nor knew the use of Iron: 'Tis wonderful they should carry so many fierce and destructive Creatures along with them, and leave the mild and useful ones behind; but more wonderful they should exhaust the Old World of many Species of Animals, never found in it since (nor perhaps before) their generally-believed Transmigration.  
'Twill be hard to make any man (moderately versed in the History of Nature) confess, that the Pacos, or Glama of Peru, or that the Manatis (a biped Animal) or many other Creatures peculiar to the West-Indies, should Travel from Asia (where they never were observed to exist) by I know not what ways into a strange World, and all to support an Old Jewish Tradition.  
'Tis unaccountable that the  Beast, commonly called the Ignavus or Sluggard (that lives most upon Trees, and cannot march above Forty or Sixty Yards in a day) should get into America from Asia, where no man ever saw it; and that neither Jacals nor Musk Deer (nimble vagabond Creatures) nor Rhinocerots, nor Elephants, nor Camels (Itinerant Animals) should ever slip over into the New World by the same paths or ways that the others went, which have lest none of their Kind behind them.  
But then suppose that America was stocked some time or other (in the days of King Arthur) from Norway, Tartary China, Land of Jesse, or Africa; yet how came those Myriads of People and new Animals (perhaps strangers not only to the Old World, but to the New itself) into those immense Countries, South West and Southeast of America, discovered more lately by Ferdinando Quir, Van Diemen, Tasman, and others? The Indian Canoes could not transport them over such boisterous long Seas; and the Lands about the Straits of Magellan are so desert, that they could not afford such mighty Colonies; neither can we fetch them from the Capes of Africa or Asia.  
I see no way at present to solve this new face of Nature by old Arguments fetched from Eastern Rubbish, or Rabinical Weeds, unless some New Philosopher starts up with a fresh System; in the mean time let them all be Aborigines.  
Some object, that America in former times was joined to Asia and Europe by large necks of Land of easy passage, which were afterwards broke off by Earthquakes, Storms, or Inundations; but this is begging of the Questîon without any manner of proof; suppose the fact was so, yet it gives no tolerable account why the Animals of the New World should differ in Specie from those of the Old; and the Americans themselves may with the same probability affirm, that they planted Asia by these ways, seeing they were equally, if not more populous, and excelling in Morality, and Mechanic Arts: For the first Spanish Writers tell us, they were amazed at the sineness and contrivances of the Indian Works, especially their Artificers in Golden and Silver Wares, their Spinnings, and Weaving, and Joinery, etc. for which Benzo, and Garcilasso de la Vega may be consulted.  
But we will give all the rope and scope imaginable to the Mosaic History of Adam's calling all the Animals together, and naming them, and after wards Noah's taking every Species of them into the Ark to preserve them in the Deluge; yet their dispersion into America, and the Terra Australis by unknown passages, will scarce solve the difficulties in stocking the remote Islands with men and other living Creatures above a Thousand Leagues distant from any Land, as the Azores, Bermudas, the Isles of the South Sea, etc. most of which abound with Natives, Quadrupeds, Birds, and Infects, different in Specie from those of the next Continents, or Terra Firma.  
A Learned Writer urges, That the Americans could be of no long standing there, because the Mexicans and Peruvians could give no account of their being there above a Thousand Years before the Spanish Invasion, which is a very strong argument against himself, considering they had not the use of Letters (which methinks they might have brought with them from the Old World) nor Ciphers, nor any way of Registering, but by Beads, or Stones. Besides, several European Nations can give no account of themselves for the first Four Thousand Years; What know we of Britain befote Julius Caesar? or of Greece itself before the Trojan War?  
I am not ignorant that some late Philosophers will have the New Animals in America, either to be Generated equivocally there, or else to proceed from various mixtures of Animals sent from hence; but this Hypothesis is of dangerous consequence, even to our own History of the Old World, and may evert the Mosaic System here at home; for if there are equivocal Generations (especially in the most perfect Kind's) or new Species produced every day, What need of a settled uniform Creation, and such a distinct Number of every Species of Animals in Paradise, or in Noah's Ark? But besides, equivocal Generations do not only tend to Atheism, but are evidently exploded by demonstrative Experiments; and as to promiscuous Generations (commonly called Hebridous) between distinct Kind's, they can never Propagate, as we see in Mules, etc. and 'tis easily proved that there can be no Propagation of any new Species, but that the Number of Creatures, as to their Kind's, have always been the same from the Beginning.  
As many difficulties lie against the Mosaic System of confining all Species of living Terrestrial Creatures within the Asiatic or Primaeval Paradise, and afterwards to Noah's Ark; so more seem to arise against the Propagation of all Mankind out of one Single Male and Female, unless all Posterity, both Blacks and Whites, separated by vast Seas, were all included actually in form within Adam and Eve.  
The Origin of Negroes lies very obscure, for time out of mind there hath been Blacks with a Woolly substance on their Bodies instead of Hair, because they are mentioned in the most Ancient Records now extant in the World. 'Tis plain their Colour and Wool are Innate, or Seminal from their first beginning, and seems to be a Specific Character, which neither the Sun, nor any Curse from Cham could imprint upon them.  
Not the First, because many other Nations living under the same Climates and Heats, are never Black, as the Abyssynes, the Siamites, the Brasilians, Peruvians, etc. neither will any White ever become a Black in Guinea, Congo, or Angola, though born there; neither will any Negroes produce Whites in Virginia, or New England. The Textures of their Skins, and Blood, differ from those of Whites.  
Not the Latter: For what Curse is change of Colour, that being only accidental to Beauty, which consists wholly in Proportion and Symmetry? The Old Statues in Black Marble, are as much, if not more, valued than those in White. Besides, the Curse upon Cham's account must have turned many of the asiatics, and all the Egyptians into Negroes; for they were Cursed more peculiarly than the Western remote Coasts of Africa.  
This Colour (which appears to be as Ingenite, and as Original as that in Whites) could not proceed from any Accident, because when Animals are Accidentally Black, they do not Procreate constantly Black ones (as the Negroes do) as in Dogs, Cows, Sheep, and in some Birds; Accidental Colours vary in the same Numerical Subject by changes of Seasons, of Diet, of Culture, etc. but a Negro will always be a Negro, carry him to Greenland, give him Chalk, Feed and Manage him never so many ways.  
Constantia Semina Rerum.    

THE SECOND ESSAY, CONCERNING The Rise, Progress, and Destruction of Fables and Romances. With the State of Learning.  
THE bare, naked, or simple way of Instructing by Precept, being found jejune and nauseous, a mixture of Fable was therefore thought necessary to sweeten and allure the minds of men, naturally Superstitious and Credulous; which kind of Philosophy was first made use of amongst the Eastern Nations, the Hebrews themselves not excepted. Hence 'tis that the Oldest Books are Mythological, as Aesop, Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, etc. This Fabulous way of Writing passed from the Poets to the Schools and theatres. Sed diligentèr intuere has Naenias, quantam sub illis utilitatem reperies, nec aliud quidquam per fabellas quaeritur, quam corrigatur Error ut mortalium, acuatque seize diligent industria. Phoedrus.  
In Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, there are many Fictions, but invented only for want of Truth; such are the imaginary Originals of most Nations, etc. but the true sort of History is judiciously distinguished by Diodorus, from the Mythological or Fabulous; such as is all that before the Trojan War.  
Strabo affirms, That the Histories of the Persians, Medes, and Syrians, deserve little Credit; the inventors of Fables were in such vogue and esteem, that all their Writers followed the Romantic vein, which had reigned long in Egypt.  
These seeds of Fiction being transplanted into Greece, found the soil very fertile and luxuriant. The Greeks addicted to Poetry and Invention, ran all upon Figures, Allegories, Fables, and Parables. The Egyptians before had taught them the Mysterious way under Hieroglyphics, under masks and disguises, which make up their Mythologick Theology. The Tales told by the Egyptian Priests to Pythagoras, Plato, and other Greeks, failed not to tickle their curiosity and passion of novelty. Graecia Mendax—.  
The Sacred Authors themselves complied with this Humour of Parables and Fictions, the Holy Scripture being altogether Mysterious, Allegorical and Enigmatical; and our Saviour himself gave his Precepts under this veil. The Talmud contains Millions of Fables, every one more impertinent than another. The Arabians excelled the Hebrews in Metaphors, Similitudes, and Fictions, of which their Alcoran is a proof, as well as their numerous Troops of Poets, which afterwards infected Spain and Provence, with Rhodomantade and Knight-Errantry, Giants, Dragons, Enchanted Castles, and such like acts of Chivalry.  
From these fountains the Christian Monks drunk in the art of Lying, and composing of Legends; but they did not tell their Tales so finely as the Greeks and the Orientals. They imitate the Sibyls and the Oracles in their Cells and Hermitages, though not in the Wisdom or Cunning of their Precepts and Doctrines; which yet Tully himself spoke contemptibly of. Quid verò habet Autoritatis furor iste, quem divinum vocamus, ut, quae sapiens non videat, ea videat insanus, & Is, qui humanos sensus amiserit, divinos assecutus sit? Sibyllae versus observamus, quos illa furens fudisse dicitur—. De Divinat. How long was it inculacted up and down that the Devil spoke in the Oracles, and that they were all silenced at our Saviour's coming, till D. van Dale proved the contrary beyond all controversy and dispute. V Dissert. de Oraculis, Eorumque duratione & Auctoribus. 8vo Amstelodam, 1683.  
I might give here an account of the famous Edda, which relates the wonderful achievements of Woden and his Wife Frigga (whose names we still retain in our Wednesday and Friday. See Verstegan) with the rest of our Gothish Ancestors; a Book which for Antiquity might contend with Homer, and as Fabulous as the best.  
What Stories and Tales have we of Brute, of Arthur, and Merlin? every Province had their Romancers, their Strolers, and Fable-Mongers; the whole world was overrun with Lies, and the Fictions of these Practitioners.  
The Eastern Nations at this very day retain their old Gust for Fabulous Inventions, Astrological Cheats, Jugglers, Songsters, and lying Mountebanks. They affect still the old Oriental Rhodomontade, which made up the profane Learning of the Gentiles, and was sanctified even in Syria itself: The Sacred Writers complying with the pulse of the Jews, made use of Fictions and Parables to express their Inspirations; therefore our Holy Scripture, in the Judgement of our best Critics, Grotius, Father Simon, Le Clerc, etc. is altogether Mysterious, Allegorical, and Enigmatical. The Talmudists believed that the Book of Job is no other but a Parable of the Invention of the Hebrews; the Psalms of David, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticles, and other Holy Songs, are Poetical Works, abounding with Figures, which would seem bold and violent in our Writings, and which are ordinary in those of that Nation. The Book of Canticles is a kind of Dramatic Poem, where the Passions of the Bridegroom and Spouse are painted after a tender and touching manner. In the Book of Ruth, and in the 23d. Chapter of Ezekiel there are many wanton and lascivious expressions; insomuch that Joseph Scaliger was wont to say, that his reading of Aristophanes, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, and other such Authors, did very much enlighten him in the Interpretation of the Scriptures; in which there are many things Divinely said, above the pitch of Poets or Philosophers.  
I thought to have proceeded with Prodigies and Prophecies, and with a History of Enthusiasm; but I find Dr. Spencer, the late Master of Bennet College in Cambridge, has so ingeniously and fully handled the first, and Meric Casaubon the latter, that a Genius much higher than mine will scarcely attempt to come after them. I will only remark here once for all, That men in former days that knew and performed above the ordinary level, were suspected of Magic; and therefore the Learned Naudaeus wrote an Apology for all the Wise Men who have unjustly been reputed Magicians, from the Creation to the present Age; and indeed it is to be wished that some Able Pen would do the like for the many Sagacious Literati, who are at this day most inhumanly accused of Atheism, because they search, and find, and hunt a little out of the common field, or do not run headlong in the high road.  
Pessima res est errorum Apotheosis, & pro peste intellectus habenda est, si vanis accedat Veneratio. Bacon. Nou. Organ.  
Tam magna penuria Mentis ubique,  
In nugas tam prona Via est—  
Et sic Observatio crescit  
Ex Atavis quondam male caepta, deinde secutis  
Tradita temporibus, serisque Nepotibus aucta.  Prudent. in Symach. 
To this Essay of Fables and Romances, the History of Daemonology doth properly belong, with all the terrible troops of Spirits and Witches; but I find this Part is so Judiciously and Learnedly Treated of by our Countryman Mr. Hobbs in that Book of his Leviathan, called the Kingdom of Darkness; and lately by Dr. Becker of Amsterdam in Four Tomes, called Le Monde Enchanteé, that my labour will be all lost, and would only prove dull repetition; therefore I hasten to the end and destruction of them in these Western Parts of the World, by what steps it was brought on, and how happily finished.  
The most early strokes, we meet with, are in Dante, Petrarch, and Boccace, in Chaucer, and Wiclef; afterwards upon the taking of Constantinople the exiled Grecians fled into Italy, where under the wings of Lorenzo de Medici, sound Learning and good Sense began to hatch and creep abroad, fostered and fed by that Illustrious Family, cultivated by those excellent Wits, Poggius, Aretinus, Valla, Gaza, Hermolaus Barbarus, Angelus Politianus, and others, who flourished between 1400 and 1500.  
The Art of Printing being invented about 1442, and spread up and down Europe by 1480 and 1490, and asterwards improved and advanced to perfection from 1500 to 1600, under the care and exquisite Judgements of the Aldi, the Stephani, the Frobenij, Commelin, Plantine, and others; the Rays of new Light began to dart abroad, and our Hemisphere to be all Illuminated.  
Reuchlin, Erasmus, Palingenius, Buchanan, etc. dispelled the Mists of Monkery, and a sort of Reformation appeared in glimmerings and flashes.  
The mighty Genius of Francis the First, sprung up about this time, and with his Royal cloak covered the naked Muses: Hobgoblins and Phantomes fled at the rising of this Star, which soon grew up to be the Sun and Glory of Letters, the Father of true Knowledge, and the Patron of Arts and Sciences; in his Reign we read of the Bellays, the Chastel's, Budaeus, Rabelais, Julius Scaliger, Gyllius, Bellonius, Gesner, Rondeletius, and many other Eminent Men, who carried Learning up to a great height.  
In the beginning of this last Century, England had the Honour and Felicity to produce my Lord Bacon, a Man of wonderful Invention and Fertility in vast Designs; he saw the Greeks and Romans had spun Humanity to its utmost Fineness and Perfection, which laid buried many Ages under Gothick Ruins and Monkish Rubbish; he saw the Restoration of this Ancient Civility and Politeness, and observed the Belle Lettre to reassume its utmost strength in Joseph Scaliger, and Isaac Casaubon; therefore he drew another Plan, and laid the foundation of a New Experimental Learning upon the Observations of Sense and Matter of Fact; which hath been since prosecuted in the Mathematics, the Mechanics, Natural and Physical History, with a happy success in most parts of Europe. 'Tis therefore that the present Age affords so much of real Knowledge, and will not endure empty Notions, and vain Speculations, which had so long amused and vapoured the World: We presently call for clear Proof, Fact, or ocular Demonstration: What Improvements in all the parts of Life might not be expected from such sound Principles, if we had a Richelieu or a Colbert to put the Springs and Wheels in motion? For want of such a fund, the True Philosophy gins to degenerate and dwindle into Gossipping, into Tale-telling, into Jests, into Romantic Hypotheses, and idle Whimsies: Nubes pro Junone.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
MY LORD,  
I Thought to have troubled Your Lordship no further at present, my Temper disposing me to speak little, and write short; but observing in many late Authors a false method of making general and Universal Conclusions from some Particulars, I could not but take notice of it in this place, because Your Lordship has a true Logical Head, and a sound way of Reasoning.  
Some Writers, because they find Shells on the Shores, to be the Spoils or Exuviae of Sea-Animals, and Plants at Land to rise from Seed; therefore they conclude, That all other Shells, or Shell-stones resembling them, must come from the same place, and all Vegetables be produced in the same manner; so they affirm all Infects to be Generated by Animal Parents, because they observe some to proceed from Eggs; as though Nature, or the Almightier Governor of the Universe, must be confined in all the various mysterious ways of Generation, to their singular or narrow Caprice, founded upon a few particular Observations.  
Many Crustaceous and Testaceous Animals are peculiar to Lakes, Rivers, Thickets, Caves, Rocks, Beds of Mud and Sand, of which many Species are unknown to us at this day; and perhaps the Land, or Freshwater Shells may be as numerous as those at Sea; therefore we need not fetch all our Subterraneous Shell-Stones from the Ocean; but I see no Contradiction or Absurdity in Nature in ascribing the Origine of These resembling Marine Shells, to the Plastic Power (or call it what Principle you please) of the Earth; the same may be said of the Subterraneous Vegetables; for this way of explicating these Appearances is not attended with half so many or great difficulties, as that of bringing them in by an Universal Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge.  
Shells, or Testaceous figured Bodies, may be Generated in Beds of Earth, or Stone, as easily as Animals or Plants themselves, which are sometimes found alive upon the breaking of Rocks and Stones asunder, into which neither Water, nor Air, nor Animal Parent, nor jeed could have any ingress; especially if we suppose with the late Author of the Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth, etc. that Quarries, or the Strata of Stone, were form upon the Settlement of our Globe, when dissevered and taken all to pieces in the Flood.  
Men conversant in Medical Observations, and Anatomical History, observe great variety of Stones curiously Figured and Coloured, as also wonderful diversity of Worms and other Infects, to be daily form in the Bodies of Animals, especially in the Gall, Bladders, Stomaches, and Glands; but they meet with insuperable difficulties when they attempt to bring them into the Microcosm they know not what ways, nor from what places. So the Subterraneous Speculators viewing Testaceous and other Animal and Vegetable-like Bodies in the Bowels of the greater world are forced upon the rack when they endeavour to fetch 'em in from strange places. The safest way is to take the nearest cause, and to explicate Nature by her immediate steps and appearances; as Aristotle did very judiciously upon this occasion: Testacea interdùm spontè è limo proveniunt, alia ex alio; ostreae in coenoso, conchae & quae suprà diximus in Sabuloso; circa Saxorum cava Papillae seu Tethya, Balani seu Glandes', & quae per summa adhaerent, ut Lepades seu Patellae, & Neritae.  
Neither are Shell-like Bodies sometimes thus Propagated, but Vegetables themselves, which will often spring up plentifully in Countries where they never grew before, even out of the Trunks of Trees, out of Stones, and on the tops of the highest places. What Myriads of Infects are produced upon Steeping Pepper in Rain water? And shall we wonder to see Shell-stones, Teeth, and other Bone-like figured Bodies in the Bowels of the Earth, when we find the same, if not greater, Wonders in our own Bodies, and in those of Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes; as Teeth in Abscesses, perfect Shells in Glands, Bezoar in Stomaches, Testaceous or Laminated stones in the internal parts of Crustaceous and Finned Fishes, as also In naked Snails, besides curious varieties of Infects in many parts of most Animals? Of which Physical Causes may be assigned, without taking the Microcosm all to pieces in order to bring them in, vi & Armis, by dissolving all that stands in their way.  
'Tis hard to conceive how such innumerable Aquatic Animals should be destroyed by a Deluge of their own Element; St. Austin knew better things, Animalia, quae in Aquis vivere possunt, Diluvij plaga non tetigit, haec enim terrena tantùm mortificavit; for God inflicted this punishment only upon the Earth and its Creatures, Why so many Millions of Fishes Bones and Integuments to be entombed in Graves or Beds, perhaps a 1000 Miles below the surface of the Earth, under Layers of Stones and Marble, where they are said to fall or sink by their specific Gravity, during the General Dissolution of the Earth by the Deluge.  
Moses seems to be of a different Opinion from the Writer of the late Essay (though he pretends to corroborate and support the Mosaic System) for Moses gives a plain and clear Relation of the Mountains standing firm and entire during the whole Scene of that Action; read the 7th. and 8th. Chapter of Genesis; and if the Hills continued in their Antidiluvian state, I do not see how so many Millions of Shells, Teeth, and other Bones of Sea-Animals, together with such numbers of Antidiluvian Vegetables, could possibly be buried so deep in the Entrails of our Planet, fortified and encompassed with Arches of Metallick Mines and Quarries. If the Ocean did overflow the whole Globe (against which many Batteries have been raised by the greatest Scholars of this Island, Isaac Vossius and the Present Learned Bishop of Worcester) and brought along with it many Marine Bodies out of their natural Site or Beds; then 'tis probable that the same fluid Principle, or Mass, might have rolled them back again from whence it had driven them; for the Sea is said to return to its primaeval Channel immediately after the work was over, so it might have carried them back again as easily as it roused them at first from their native Depths, or Marine Situations.  
Sir John Narborough in his Voyage to Chili, observed in several Cliffs and Hills on the Coasts of Patagonia, lumps of Oyster Shells buried up and down at Land; yet he could never find any Oysters in those Seas, though he had Sounded most of the Ports of Southern America. Every body knows that this Shellfish always breeds near the Shores; so that flying to the deep can be no subterfuge here.  
In Europe many shell-stones, or Fossil shells, as also subterraneous Vegetables are found, which are not to be matched either at Sea or Land; to fancy them in dark and remote Parts of the Ocean, seems but a weak evasion; and because some may be sampled at Sea, therefore all must come from thence, is not a very sound Conclusion.  
Several Authors have attempted to prove the Strata, or Layers of our Globe, to proceed from the several Sediments of the Universal Deluge; and that the Lapis Judaicus, the Astroites, or Star-stone Columns (of which there are some of enormous Dimensions) the Bufonites or Toadstone, the Glossopetrae, and Cornua Ammonis (though nothing like it at Sea) are really the Teeth, Spines, Bones, and other parts of Sea-Animals, left behind in the Bowels of the Earth by the General Flood. But, I think, all these Ingenious Writers have stronger Fancies than Judgements, and a meaner Opinion of the Invention, Art, and Power of Nature, than she deserves; for any common Observer must find Her to vary and sport in nothing so much as in the Figures, Textures, Shootings, and Growths of Fossils'.  
The common Problem, That a Solid included within a Solid, must of necessity pre-exist before the external or including Solid, is notoriously false from the daily Generation of new Solids and new Animals (as Ferrugineous and Testaceous Stones, as also various Infects) within the Solid parts of several Bodies: Neither doth this necessarily induce any fortuitous or aequivocal Generation, though the latter may, perhaps, sometimes be brought about in the imperfect kinds of Animals, by the same power that intends over and governs the univocal Generation of Infects; for that Powerful Principle is not limited to one single plastic Method, seeing Matter is capable of all Forms.  
Jovis Omnia plena.  
FINIS.