CHAP IX.

OF THE ABUSES MADE OF INSECTS IN MEDECINE.

THE great end of medecine is to preserve or to ref tore the health of mankind: to fwerve from thefe principles is an error; to act contrary to them is a crime. The vulgar generally fall into both these faults, having a strong tradition as to the foundation of their belief. Towards St John's day, there is found at the root of feveral plants, a kind of berry of a purple colour, which is nothing but the web of fome beetles. Foolifh people imagine it is the fruit of St John, which grows only on that particular day, and which being hung from the roof or bruifed on the cloaths, is a prefèrvative from disease, during the rest of the year.

Ignorant quacks, and unexperienced physicians ge nerally fail in cafes where others fucceed. The reafon is plain, because they are unaquainted with the common rules; or if they know them, they know only the entrance, but not the iffue. Hence it happens that not having the capacity to prepare medecines, to regulate the dofes, or to give them in a convenient vehicle, they lofe their patients by thofe very medecines which would have cured them, if adminiftred by other hands. There are cafes in which infects operate with much fuccefs; but the cure is never more uncertain, than when we expect it from those prefumptuous

prefumptuous empirics, who talk of their potable gold, and of the univerfal medecine. In incurable diseases they are the firft and the laft to be had recourfe to; there they perform their chief feat, and deliver from all ills by precipitating families into mourning. The cafes in which remedies, ill applied, have had fatal confequences, are not rare. Infects have fometimes furnished matter for fuch accidents; as one example, I faw a physician of the kind we have mentioned adminifter cantharides to a man afflicted with the ftone; the patient was immediately feized with the most excrutiating pains; he paffed blood, gangrene fucceeded, and he died. An Italian, whom I fhall not name, having taken cantharides, from an opinion generally received, that they provoke to venery, was foon punished for his ill judged temerity. He died in great agony, and upon opening his body, the paflages were all found inflamed and ulcerated.

I am fenfible, that I here afford to the atheift, but too favourable an opportunity of attacking religion, not to interrupt myfelf. I think I hear him fay, fince God, fupremely good, and infinitely wife, has created all things, and even infects, for a good end, he ought, for the fame reafon, to prevent man from employing them to a bad purpofe. Either God could not, or would not do this. If he could not, then he is not all-powerful; if he would not, he is deficient in goodness, confequently, he ceafes to be God, because he has not all the neceffary attributes of deity. This argument is fpecious, but it is not the lefs falfe and unfounded, The attributes of the Supreme Being, are intimately united with his ef fence, and, therefore, are infeparable. They can never be confidered apart, but fo united, that the power and the goodness of God, always perfectly accord with his wifdom. It is under this point of view, that, looking at man in the aggregate, we discover,

that the mechanifm of his body, is, the work of infinite Power, the gift of reafon, the effect of incon ceivable goodness, and his free will, that of confummate wifdom. Now, if in order to make use of reason, the Deity granted to man, the privilege of free will, it follows, that the Creator could not control the will, without an imputation on his own wifdom, and without annihilating, at the fame time, the liberty of the creature. Befides, as it is juft to afcribe to God all the good we receive from created things, it would be unjust to attribute to him the ill which results from the abufes we make of them,

CHA P. X.
НАР.

OF THE PRODIGIES MENTIONED IN SCRIPTURE, WHICH RELATE TO INSECTS,

IT is as ridiculous to confider as miraculous, every thing that appears aftonishing, as it is impious to deny every fort of miracle. The firft betrays ignorance; the second manifefts the corruption of the mind, and the heart. This laft is the crime of atheifts. As a miracle exceeds the power of nature, and, as in order to work one, a fuperior power is neceffary, they attri bute this to nature herfelf, whom they confider, as a being poffeffed of omnipotence; that is, they maintain that nature can interrupt her own courfe, and change the laws fhe hath herself established. Except this, the atheist acknowledges no Supreme Being, confequently, no fupernatural effect, but in proportion as we contemplate

contemplate the conftant order that prevails in na ture, the determinate ftructure, and multiplication of the different fpecies of animals, and in particular, what I have ftill to fay, with regard to infects; it is impoffible for us not to open our eyes, and acknowledge a Being, all-wife, different from nature, and all-powerful, a Being who hath created the universe, who hath regulated and limited the course of nature herself, who hath fixed the qualities and difpofitions of animals, and who can change, when he thinks fit, the order which he himfelf hath established: and, when this truth is once admitted, we can no longer doubt the poffibility of miracles. Accordingly, the Scripture informs us, that they have actually happened, and as its veracity hath been fufficiently demonftrated, its teflimony alone establishes the point.

We read, in Exodus, of various extraordinary events, which undoubtedly furpafs human power. I fhall not here stop to relate the proofs of the authenticity of the books of Mofes, not only because the fubject would lead me too far, but because others have already fet this in the cleareft light. I fhall only add, that the chaftifement of the ten plagues, inflicted on Egypt, by Mofes and Aaron, in three of which infects were the inftrument of the wrath of God, has been attested by profane authors. St. Paul, II. Timothy iii. 8. puts Jannes and Jambres in the number of those who withstood Mofes, as other writers teftify. Numenius fays, that, when the Ifraelites were driven from Egypt, Jannes and Jambres, the facred writers of the Egyptians, had the reputation of being deeply skilled in magic; that they were unanimously chosen to oppose their learning to the virtue of Mofes, the leader of the Jewish people, and that their prayers were fo effectual, as to ftop the progrefs of those plagues that had been brought on Pharoah and his fubjects. Though Numenius does not inform L12

us,

us, that thofe two magicians were unable to prevent thofe plagues, he, however, attefts the fact. Pliny affures us, that there was a fort of magic known by Mofes, by Jambres and Jetopes, and which remained with the Jews, feveral thousand years after the death of Zoroafter. What he fays is obfcure, but it fhews, however, that the legiflator of the Jews was celebrated for his miracles, and that he held a diftinguished place among the fages of his time.

Among other plagues which Egypt fuffered, the third is remarkable, as it is described in EXODUS viii. 16.-19. And the Lord faid unto Mofes, fay unto Aaron, ftretch out thy rod, and fmite the duft of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did fo; for Aaron ftretched out his hand with his rod, and finote the duft of the earth, and it became lice in man and beaft: all the duft of the land became lice, throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did fo with their inchantments, to bring forth lice, but they could not; fo there were lice upon man, and upon beaft. Then the magicians faid unto Pharoah, this is the finger of God; but Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had faid." There is nothing in this miracle, that can be imputed to natural caufes; it must be referred to the direction and power of God. The truth of the history is inconteftible, not only in itself, but from the authority of many credible authors. Thus, the prophet David had this event in view, when, in fpeaking of the divine power, he fays, in PSALM CV. 30. 31. "He fpake, and there came divers forts of flies and lice in all their coafts." Jofephus has alfo mentioned this in his Jewish Antiquities. God, fays he, punished Pharaoh for his wickednefs, but with another plague, for he overwhelmed the Egyptians with an innu merable quantity of lice, which fo tormented thofe Jebels,