IV. BUt the Practice I have all this while been recommending, do’s not onely dispose us to Attention, in observing the things that occur to us, and accustom us to reflect on them seriously, and express them fitly, but do’s also, though insensibly, suggest to us Ways and Methods, whereby to make the Objects we consider informative to us.
For by Example, Analogy, or some of those other ways which we may be invited, on another occasion, to insist on, we are, as it were, led by the hand to the discovery of divers useful Notions, especially Practical, which else we should not take any notice of. And indeed, the VVorld is the great Book, not so much of Nature, as of the God of Nature, which we should find ev’n crowded with instructive Lessons, if we had but the Skill, and would take the Pains, to extract and pick them out: The Creatures are the true Aegyptian Hieroglyphicks, that under the rude forms of Birds, and Beasts, &c. conceal the mysterious secrets of Knowledge, and of Piety. And as Chymists boast of their Elixir, that ‘twill turn the ignoblest Metals into Gold; so Wisdome makes all Objects, on which it operates, inrich the Possessor with useful and precious Thoughts: And since, ev’n the illiterate Husbandman can, with the most abject Dung it self, give a flourishing growth to the most useful Grains, to Medicinable herbs, and ev’n to fragrant Flowers; why may not a wise Man, by the meanest Creatures, and slighted’st Object, give a considerable Improvement to the noblest Faculties of the Soul, and the most lovely Qualities of the Mind?
But the particular Method of deriving Instruction from the Subjects we consider, will be more fit to be particularly insisted on, when we shall have more time, or some other opportunity, to treat of the manner of making Occasional Meditations, and shew, how they may be fetch’d from Example, Analogy, Dissimilitude, Ratiocination, and other Topicks, which we must not now take any further notice of.
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