i88 OFTHEUSE 



witnefs to the efficacy of the Virginia avens 

 and the monacda in intermitting fevers, and 

 of the root of the ceanothus^ and diervilla in 

 venereal cafes ; if we had not learned how to 

 raife thefe plants ? Or to what end would it 

 have ferved to crofs the ocean, and attain the 

 American water gladiole^ if we had not found 

 out that it was of the genus of our water gla- 

 diole? The Europeans at vaft expence went 

 on buying the moxa from China, the figwort 

 from Brazil, and xhtjachafchapuch from North 

 America, till it was known that they grew in 

 our own countrey. 



§. 12. 



There is, as it were, a certain chain of cre- 

 ated beings, according to which they feem all 

 to have been formed, and one thing differs fo 

 little from fome other, that if we fall into the 

 right method we fhall fcarcely find any limits 

 between them. This no one can fo well ob- 

 ferve, as he who is acquainted with the greateft 

 number of fpecies. Does not every one per- 

 ceive, that there is a vaft difference between 

 a ftone and a monkey ? but if all the inter- 

 mediate beings Vv^ere fet to view in order, it 



would 



