 a few Atoms, opposed to the whole Earth which we inhabit? Can a
Man who, by Divine Meditations, is admitted, as it were, into the Conversation
of this ineffable, incomprehensible Majesty, think Days, or Years, or Ages, too
long, for the Continuance of so ravishing an Honour? Shall the trifling
Amusements, the palling Pleasures, the silly Business of the World, roll away
our Hours too swiftly from us; and shall the Pace of Time seem sluggish to a
Mind exercised in Studies so high, so important, and so glorious! And as no Time
is sufficient, so neither is any Place improper for this great Concern. On what
Object can we cast our Eyes, which may not inspire us with Ideas of his Power,
of his Wisdom, and of his Goodness? It is not necessary, that the rising Sun
should dart his fiery Glories over the Eastern Horizon; nor that the boisterous
Winds should rush from their Caverns, and shake the lofty Forest; nor that the
opening Clouds should pour their Deluges on the Plains: It is not necessary, I
say, that any of these should proclaim his Majesty; there is not an Insect, not
a Vegetable, of so low an Order in the Creation, but it is honoured with bearing
Marks of the Attributes of its great Creator; Marks not only of his Power, but
of his Wisdom and Goodness. Man alone, the King of this Globe, the last and
greatest Work of the Supreme Being, below the Sun; Man alone hath basely
dishonoured his own Nature, and by Dishonesty, Cruelty, Ingratitude, and
accursed Treachery, hath called his Maker's Goodness in Question, by puzzling us
to account how a benevolent Being should form so imperfect, and so vile an
Animal. Yet this is the Being from whose Conversation you think, I suppose, that
I have been unfortunately restrained; and without whose blessed Society, Life,
in your Opinion, must be tedious and insipid.«
    »In the former Part of what you said,« replied Jones, »I most heartily and
readily concur; but I believe, as well as hope, that the Abhorrence which you
express for Mankind, in the Conclusion, is much too general. Indeed you here
fall into an Error, which, in my little Experience, I have observed to be a very
common one, by taking the Character of Mankind from the worst and basest among
them; whereas indeed, as an excellent Writer observes, nothing should be
esteemed as characteristical of a Species, but what is to be found among the
best
