INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. XXXVll 



jiality vanilhes in air. Such is the termination 

 of exiftence by age : but how fmall a portion of 

 the animated creation attain the time! Often, 

 during the vigour of youth, in the height of ac- 

 tivity and fenfation, the chain will be diflfolved 

 without any external caufe ; the thread is cut ; 

 fomething feems to depart ,; and the mofl beauti- 

 ful work of nature haflens into hideous corrup- 

 tion. 



To affirm that a being, whofe animation hes 

 been fufpended for an immoderate length of time, 

 even for years, can, in virtue of certain condi- 

 tions, be revived, has fo fmgular and paradoxical 

 an appearance, that reafon finds it repugnant to 

 admit the facl. But to produce an animal which 

 has been iliif and motionlefs, withered, disfigured, 

 and contracted J utterly incapable of any corporeal 

 fundion, and the operation of its organs at an 

 end ; to produce this animal, and, by a particular 

 treatment, to make it renovate every adion that it 

 .could perform before ; to fee nutrition, digeftion, 

 and generation carried on, not only will it bear 

 perfeft convidion to the mind that it has come 

 from a ilate which, if it was not death, certainly 

 cannot be called life, but that it again lives as 

 completely as before its animation was fufpended 

 or deftroyed. — Some animals in the world enjoy 

 ihis wonderful prerogative. They originate, ar- 

 rive at maturity, and maintain the vital lundions: 

 d 3 their 



