_B._ It is true that the earth produced the first living creatures of all sorts but man. For God said (Gen. i. 24), _Let the earth produce every living creature, cattle, and creeping thing, &c._ But then again (ver. 25) it is said that _God made the beast of the earth, &c._ So that it is evident that God gave unto the earth that virtue. Which virtue must needs consist in motion, because all generation is motion. But man, though the same day, was made afterward. _A._ Why hath not the earth the same virtue now? Is not the sun the same as it was? Or is there no earth now soft enough? _B._ Yes. And it may be the earth may yet produce some very small living creatures: and perhaps male and female. For the smallest creatures which we take notice of, do engender, though they do not all by conjunction; therefore if the earth produce living creatures at this day, God did not absolutely rest from all his works on the seventh day, but (as it is chap. ii. 2) _he rested from all the work he had made_. And therefore it is no harm to think that God worketh still, and when and where and what he pleaseth. Beside, it is very hard to believe, that to produce male and female, and all that belongs thereto, as also the several and curious organs of sense and memory, could be the work of anything that had not understanding. From whence, I think we may conclude, that whatsoever was made after the creation, was a new creature made by God no otherwise than the first creatures were, excepting only man. _A._ They are then in an error that think there are no more different kinds of animals in the world now, than there were in the ark of Noah. _B._ Yes, doubtless. For they have no text of Scripture from which it can be proved. _A._ The questions of nature which I could yet propound are innumerable. And since I cannot go through them, I must give over somewhere, and why not here? For I have troubled you enough, though I hope you will forgive me. _B._ So God forgive us both as we do one another. But forget not to take with you the demonstration of a straight line equal to an arc of a circle. THE PROPORTION OF A STRAIGHT LINE TO HALF THE ARC OF A QUADRANT. [Illustration] Describe the square A B C D, and divide it by the diagonals A C and B D, as also by the straight lines E G, F H, meeting in the centre I at right angles, into four equal parts. Then with the radius A B describe the quadrant B D cutting E G in K, and the diagonal A C in L; and so B L will be half the arc B D, equal to which we are to find a straight line. Divide I C into halves at M, and draw B M cutting E G in _a_. I say B M is equal to the arc B L. For the demonstration whereof we are to assume certain known truths and dictates of common-sense. 1. That the arc B K is the third part of the arc B D, and consequently two-thirds of the arc B L, and B K to K L as two to one.