On Xalural and Moral PJtilosophy, 38I* 



tlic kinds may be. Although from the seeds 

 of an apple or a gooseberry a thousand sub- 

 ordinate species of apples or gooseberries may 

 be produced, yet they are each separately 

 a})ples or gooseberries. From the seed of the 

 apple never springs a gooseberry, a pear, a 

 cherry, or any other vegetable whatever, and 

 cice vtrsd. We have no reason to suppose, 

 that from the period of the creation, any such 

 transmutation has taken place, or one new 

 simple form been produced, though it is posr 

 sible that some may have been lost. Compound 

 kinds from kindred and proximate species may, 

 perhaps, have issued ; but such as are the es- 

 sential properties of the kinds which enter inta 

 the union, sucli probably will be found to be 

 the mixed property of the compound. I speak 

 here with diffidence ; for I do not know that a 

 new and mixed kind of vegetables has ever 

 been produced from two primary kinds ; or, 

 if such a phenomenon have taken place, that 

 such a vegetable mule has been able to propa- 

 gate its kind, apd introduce a new species into 

 the vegetable kingdom. The diiTerent classes 

 of the material creation do most probably con- 

 tinue unalterably the same as they were at first 

 fornied, by the hand of their author, each at 

 le^t with the same specific differences and 

 properties, Uiough in the degree and proportion 

 3 B 2 



