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LETTER V.

Of the System of Des Carte:

T HE active mind of man is naturally fondof investigation; and from contemplatingeffects, we are insensibly led to enquire into thecauses which produced them. After having disicovered the vast extent of the creation, and theorder, regularity, and harmony of the celestialmotions, our next reflections will be, how sucha frame began at first to exist, and by what forcethose prodigious bodies are constantly driven ^round the fun, and detained in their orbits.

But to prosecute these researches with properadvantage, requires a free and unbiassed mind,invigorated with all the powers of genius andjudgment. From the workmanship to trace theWorkman; and from viewing the grand machine Aof the universe, to discover the hidden springs ofits motion, and the secret laws of its mechanismand contrivance, is, of all pursuits, the most :sublime and interesting, and, perhaps, the highest |pitch of knowledge which the human facultiesare capable of attaining.

It must not, therefore, be considered as a mat-ter of surprise, that, in the more early ages of

the