33^ STUDIES OF NATURE. 



No air is unwholefome but where there is corrup- 

 tion. How could fuch a principle have generated, 

 in animals, feet provided with toes, nails, and 

 claws ; ikins clothed with fo many forts of hair and 

 plumage ; jaws palifaded with teeth cut out into 

 a form adapted, fome for cutting, and others for 

 grinding ; heads adorned with eyes, and eyes fur- 

 niflied with lids to defend them from the Sun ? 

 How could the principle of corruption have col- 

 leded thefe fcattered members; unite them by 

 nerves and mufcles 3 fupport them by bony fub- 

 ftances, fitted with pivots and hinges ; feed them 

 with veins filled with a blood which circulates, 

 whether the animal be in motion or at reft ; cover 

 them with fkins fo admirably provided with hairy 

 furs, precifely adapted to the Climates which they 

 inhabit ; afterwards, make them move by the com- 

 bined aftion of a heart and a brain, and give to all 

 thefe machines, produced in the fame place, and 

 formed of the fame flime, appetites and inftinfts 

 fo entirely different ? How could it have infpired 

 them with the fenflition of themfjlves, and kindled 

 in them the defire of reproducing themfelves by 

 any other method than that which originally gave 

 them exifience ? 



Corruption, fo far from conferring life on them, 

 muft have deprived them of it, for it generates tu- 

 bercles, inflames the eyes, diffolves the blood, and 



produces 



