weed that grows in fuch plenty, and scatters feed in fuch abundance, that there is hardly a poffibility of eradicating it totally from any ground it once has taken poffeffion of.

• YET does not nature, among all that profufion of bleffings fhe beftows, prefent us with any one fimple of such universal benefit in medicinal prefcriptions, fince there is fcarce any • difeafe in which it does not help, and is in moft a fpecific.

NOBODY, who has the leaft understanding in phyfic, but will know I mean the Nettle: fince there are many excellent herbs whofe virtues • must be allowed for the cure of particular diforders; yet it is generally the cafe, that what relieves in one, fhall be prejudicial to another. • Whereas the Nettle, if taken in time, prevents thofe ailments to which the human fyftem is moft incident, and even after a too long neglect of it, gives a certain eafe in what it is intended, without the leaft ill confequence to any other complaint with which the patient may happen 6 to be afflicted.

Or this plant, for I cannot bring myself to 'affront it fo far as to call it a weed, there are • two known forts, the one has the name of Dead Nettle, or Archangel, the other is the Stinging • Nettle, to which latter the preference undoubtedly is due, as of more general fervice, though the other is a fovereign remedy in many cafes.

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I HAVE often thought the qualities of the Stinging Nettle might be juftly enough compared to thofe of good advice proceeding from an honeft heart, but delivered in terms, which, at

'firft, feem to have too much afperity in them, and at first is not well relifhed, but when reflected · on maturely, the merit of it will have its due • weight, and excite gratitude and love.

A LITTLE time, therefore, given to the can• fideration of thefe, which are by a vulgar eye looked upon as the most infignificant works of nature, could not fail leading us to contempla⚫tions of a more elevated kind, and be one great ftep towards rendering our ideas fublime, re• fined, and pure, and fit to travel through the immenfe wonders of thofe ftarry heavens, which ' we behold with so much admiration.

I CANNOT, madam, but greatly lament that interruption which deprived you and your fair friends of a farther profecution of thofe enquiries you were about to make of the planetary ' worlds. There is indeed a theme for the nobleft fpeculations. There, may the most extenfive genius be absorbed and swallowed up in a feraphic contemplation. - How muft the foul be diffolved in humble gratitude, and in astonish'ment at the power and wisdom of the Almighty and Iucomprehenfible Being, who not only formed those glorious orbs, but preferves them in 'fuch an exact order, that none of them fhall tranfgrefs their limits, or become prejudicial to

the others.

I MUST Confefs myself to be intirely of that 'gentleman's opinion, who fuppofes all the pla'nets to be fo many habitable worlds; and that fhort, but plain reafon he gives of it, of their being all illumined, may, I think, convince any < one who is not refolved to adhere to no tenets • but his own.

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• HAD

HAD you past more time than I perceive you did, or at left renewed your vifit to the telefcope, when Saturn could be feen with the greateft advantage, you would plainly have difcovered that ring or circle with which he is incompaffed, to be of a much greater brightness than the moon at full appears to us, near as fhe is to the earth.

BUT I cannot help diffenting from your ingenious friend in one particular, which is, that the diftance of this planet would involve it in a moft • horrible darknefs for near half the year; and this reafon I give for contradicting what I know very well is not only his own, but also a received opinion with most people.

THE farther this vaft planet is removed from our fun, the nearer by confequence he must be placed to fome other; for I think it has been agreed on by the moft judicious enquirers into the heavens, that the fixed ftars, as we call them, are in reality fo many funs, which give light to 6 planets of their own, and to whom that of ours appears as they do to us, no more than a fixed ftar, whofe twinkles is fearce perceivable.

SATURN, therefore, having this advantage above all other planets of our fyftem, inftead of being that dark, gloomy world we have all along believed him, muft be the moft enlightened of any; fince one half of the year he has our fun, as all the rules of aftronomy confef, and the other half is played upon by another fun, which to us is fearce perceptible: this, together with his own gorgeous circle of moons, must give him in a manner perpetual day.

THIS

THIS Opinion of pluarlity of worlds feems to me fo far from being inconfiftent with the principles of religion, that it very much enlarges ' our ideas of the Almighty Wisdom; and I can'not think but the philofophers of former ages, 'who imagined the creation terminated with what

they were able to discern, had very confined ' notions of the Great Author of nature, and also ( an adequate fhare of vanity to flatter themselves 'that all those great orbs, which roll above our heads, were made only to delight the eye of

man.

BUT every age producing new discoveries by 'the continual improvement of that most useful 'invention the tellefcope, have made these latter 'times more wife; I mean those of us who do not wilfully shut our eyes to keep the truth from gaining entrance, and are afraid of being con'vinced.

AMONG the number of thefe, I once was < acquainted with an ecclefiaftic, a very good man, but of a moderate understanding :-talking one day upon this topic, he faid, that to maintain 'there were any more worlds than this we live in, was prophane and irreligious, and directly op'pofite to the Christian faith, for, cried he, if • Chrift died for us alone, what must become of all • the fouls in thofe other worlds you talk of ?...

To which I answered, though not without C a smile, which I found myself unable to reftrain, and made, I could perceive, the good clergyman entertain yet a worfe opinion of my piety than he had before, that it was poffible those worlds 'might not have had Adams, who had finned like our forefather, and confequently could not • ftan!

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• ftand in need of the fame extraordinary manner • of redemption.

THIS put him out of all patience, and his zeal carried him fuch lengths in the arguments he made ufe of, as nothing but a perfect acquaintance with the integrity of his heart could have made me pardon, or indeed have borne with any temper.

IT is very ftrange, methinks, that people fhould be fo fond of lugging religion into dif< putes where it has no kind of concern.-Whether thefe worlds have any occafion for a faviC our, or by what fort of creatures they are inhabited, is not the queftion; the matter is, that it is reasonable to fuppofe, that they are inhabited by fome fort or other, eithe, of a fuperior or inferior nature to us, and also that every one of them is different from the other.

NATURE delights in variety; every element abounds with fpecies of a different kind. A thoufand, and ten thoufand forts of birds wing the regions of the air : the waters produce as great a number of different kinds of finny • inhabitants: the earth of reptiles, infects, ⚫ and beasts; and even men, when born in different climates, differ in colour, shape, and manners from each other, almost as much as ⚫ from the brutes.

RIDICULOUS, therefore, would it be for us to imagine, the people of these foreign worlds C are like any thing we have ever seen, or can poffibly have any notion of: God is infinite in all, and we may plainly fee that no two of his works have a perfect refemblance with each o her.

• To