Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley.

  • Stukeley, William, 1687-1765.
Date:
1763
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 2 + '] ranunculus s, and a thoufand more ! here the gay pencil of nature profitfe, bedecks a common April medow, with the aftonifhing affemblage of vivid, of mafterly compoiitions, of inimitable beatitys, of elegant fancy, in endlefs concatenations of painted flowers ; from the fimple blue violet, to that of the tricolor, which fingly prefents the celeftial iris ; no lefs than the confum- mate animal bravery of the peacock’s tail, that golden expanfion of earthly glorys. Nature is great, not only in works of fplendor, fuch as captivate the common mind, every mind : but equal¬ ly fo, in the moft fimple things, we need but give one inftance, in this kind, the element whence all vege¬ tables are derived, water ; which nourifhes all, how¬ ever various, that fo fimple and pure an element ihould accommodate its felf to the texture of the infi¬ nity of fhapes and colors and magnitudes of plants, is matter of true aftonifhment. Certainly the vegetable world finds great entertain¬ ment to a philofophical and contemplative difpofition ; and full of moral and even religious leffons. we may obferve the botanifts, who are great lovers of nature, and its di&ates, even by profeffion, fhow a very parti¬ cular regard to the fair fex ; to thofe Joft and tender objects, the laft and moft compleat work of the great author of beauty, to induce us to the happieft, the fo- cial life; for continuance of the world, for enjoying that blifs he has here deftin’d us to ; for it is not good for man to be alone. To this divine truth the botanifts proclaim their af- fent, and attachment, as we may well conclude from i fo