SECOND LECTURE. 121 



faith of those who can believe without reason. This 

 ever baseless and now declining supposition still 

 enlists on its side, or holds in suspense, some en- 

 lightened minds, whose talents and industry he 

 respects,* and this is the only circumstance which 

 leads him to bestow a moment^s consideration on 

 the subject. If these friends of the doctrine did 

 not hesitate to follow him, he would consider the 

 production of any animal, however simple or mi- 

 nute, without the aid of animal life, organization, 

 and action, as wholly incredible. The equivocal 

 hypothesis is neither specious nor probable ; it de- 

 rives no support from analogy, no aid from reason, 

 no countenance from facts. All these have anoth- 

 er aspect and another tendency. The whole fab- 

 rick we renounce seems to be nothing better than 

 an unsuccessful effort to conceal that ignorance 

 which its framers wanted magnanimity to acknow- 

 ledge. 



In its operation it has been worse than useless, 

 tending to obscure truth by substituting for its 

 light a senseless conjecture. It ascribes to chem- 

 istry, or to <^ creative warmth," what pertains alone 

 to animal life. 



In the natural sciences it has been thought a 

 defect sufficiently great to confound the animal 

 with the vegetable kingdom, which do indeed ap- 

 proximate and sometimes seem to run into each 



** Among these are several of the \vi iter's medical acquaint- 

 ance. See Rudolphi, Cap. xviii, De generatione Muiozngrum 

 spontanea: vol. i. publis'ied ia 1810. 

 i6 



