94 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



which vegetated only in air. The chief intervals 

 of the fpheres of exiftence would be filled up. But 

 every thing poflible does not exift. There exifts 

 nothing but what is ufeful relatively to Man. The 

 fame order which pervades the general combina- 

 tion of the fpheres, fubfifts in the parts of each of 

 the individuals which compofe them. There is 

 not a fingle one which has, in its organs, either 

 deficiency or redundancy. 



Their mutual adaptation is fo perceptible, and 

 they poffefs chara6ters fo very ftriking, that if you 

 were to fhew to a Naturalift of ability any repre- 

 fentation of a plant, or animal, which he had never 

 feen, he could tell, from the harmony of it's parts, 

 whether it were a creature of the imagination, or a 

 copy after Nature. One day, the ftudents in Bo- 

 tany, wifhing to put to trial the knowledge of the 

 celebrated Bernard de Juffieu, prefented to him a 

 plant which was not in the colledion of the Royal 

 Garden, requefting him to indicate it's genus and 

 fpecies. The moment he caft his eyes on it, he 

 replied, *^ This plant is artificially compofed ; 

 " you have taken the leaves of one, the flalk of 

 *' another, and the flower of a third." This was 

 the fa6t. They had, however, feledted, with the 

 greateft art, the parts of fuch as had the mofl 

 jftriking analogy. 



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