AND, lastly, the pleasantness of these Meditations, to him that hath attain’d skill in making them, will, if he be not much mortifi’d, be much increas’d by their being Proofs, as well as Effects, of Skill. To be able to take up Instructions in Books that are replenished with them, and where they are purposely and distinctly exhibited in the form of Instructions, requires rather that a man be docile than ingenious, but to be able to collect Moral and Spiritual Documents out of a Book of Hieroglyphicks, or from a Lanscape or a Map, is more than every attentive considerer can do, and is that which argues something of Dexterousness and Sagacity that is not very ordinary. And so, from Ethical or Theological Composures, to take out Lessons that may improve the Mind, is a thing much inferiour to the being able to do the like out of the Book of Nature, where most Matters that are not Physical, if they seem not to be purposely veil’d, are at least but darkly hinted. And me-thinks there is such a difference betwixt him that but takes up Instructions in Books of Morality and Devotion, and him that by Occasional Reflections derives them from the Book of Nature, and the Accidents he chances to take notice of, as there is betwixt an Ant that contributes nothing either to the Production or Improvement of the Corn she lays up and feeds on, but onely carries away that which she finds ready form’d into its little Granary or Repository, and the Industrious Bee, who, without stealing from Flowers any thing that can prejudice them, does not onely gather, but improve and transform, her food, and live on that which otherwise would be useless, and besides, not onely has the pleasure to gather its food from Flowers, and from variety of them, but lives upon Honey, an Aliment that is as sweet and delicious as nutritive. ‘Twas doubtless a very great pleasure to Aesop, that by his ingenious Fictions he could, in a manner, lend Reason and Speech to Lions, Foxes, Crows, and other Animals, to whom Nature had deni’d both; and I know not why it should be less delightful, by Occasional Reflections, to turn not onely Birds and Beasts, but all kinds of Creatures in the world, as well mute and inanimate, as irrational, not onely into Teachers of Ethicks, but oftentimes into Doctors of Divinity, and by compelling senseless Creatures to reveal Truths to us, that they were never acquainted with themselves, perform really something like that, which was but pretended by the antient Augures and other Diviners the Heathen world admir’d, who took upon them, by the casual flights of Birds, and the Inspection of the Intrals of Beasts, to learn the Will of Heaven. ‘Tis a piece of skill, for which Mathematicians have been deservedly admir’d, and which is little less pleasing to those that have it, than wonderful to those that have it not, that as if Artists were able to prescribe to the Sun and Moon, and the rest of the luminous Globes of Heaven, both their pace and their stages, they can make that inexhausted Fountain of Light, at so immense a Distance, by the Shadow of a little Gnomon, fitly plac’d, give us an exact account of all the Journeys he performs in the Zodiack; but perhaps, ‘tis neither a less noble nor a less delightful piece of skill, to be able, by an innocent kind of Necromancy, to consult the dead, and conjure up worm-eaten Carkases out of their Mossy Graves, without fearing to hear from them such dismal Discourses as Saul had from dead Samuel, and to make, not the Stars onely, but all the Creatures of Nature, and the various occurrences that can fall under our notice, conspire to inrich us with Instructions they never meant us; since the Motion of the celestial lights are known, certain, and invariable; but these particulars are neither to be defin’d by number, nor limited by Rules. Not to say, that this Secret does as much excel that other, which recommends Astronomy, as Wisdom does Science, and is as much the more useful of the two, as to know how to pass away our time is more profitable, than to know how our time passes away.
But there is a fourth particular, which, though somewhat less directly than the three I have already discours’d of, may be reduc’d to the Pleasantness of Occasional Meditations; and it is, That whereas our innate Self-love is wont to make any thing that minds us of our faults exceedingly uneasie and unwelcome: in the Discoveries that, by this way of thinking, are made us of what is amiss, the uneasiness is very much allai’d, and the Pill very well gilt. For there are two main things that conduce to the sweetning of Reproofs· and to keep men from being offended at them; The one is, when they come from a person whom we love, and whom we believe to love us, and to have no other design in displeasing us than that of serving us: And the other is, That the Discovery that is made us of our faults be sweeten’d by Acknowledgments of our having Qualities of a commendable Nature, whence wise Reprovers usually mingle, and, as it were, brew their Reprehensions with Praises. Now, both these pleasing Vehicles, if I may so call them, and Correctives of Reproofs, concur in those we meet with in making Occasional Reflections. For, in these cases, being our own Instructors, and our own Consciences being the Makers of the Application, we cannot suspect the Reprehensions to come from Persons, that either mistake us, or are partial against us; and that Truth which a man’s Conscience applies to him, being found out by the sagacity of his own Understanding, extracting from Objects that which every Considerer would not have pick’d out thence; it may very often happen, that the same Reflection will discover to a man his Excellencies, as well as make him take notice of his faults; and that which makes him condemn the Disorders of his Affections, may argue, and thereby commend, the Goodness of his Parts.
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