l8o ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. I. 



all are qualities proving what I advance. But 

 this analogy exifts no more, when we come to 

 fifl:ies, reptiles, and infects. It is true, that a- 

 mong the lafl are many diflinguiflied by their 

 operations : whether confidered by their anxiety 

 for felf-prefervation, purfuing what is ufeful, and 

 avoiding what is noxious ; whether we confider 

 their mutual anxiety for propagating the fpecies, 

 or fmgular folicitude for their young, placing 

 them in fuitable fituations, and providing them 

 with food until tliey need maternal alTiftance np 

 longer. We all knowthe ingenuity of bees, the 

 fagacity of the leaf-moth (tignuola delle fogUe\ 

 the induflry of the ant-lion and fpider, the fero- 

 city of the hornet, or the ingenious cruelty of 

 ichneumons. But the operations of numberlefs 

 other animals are reduced fimply to feizing and 

 fwailowing their prey, as the arm-polypus ; or 

 to open and (hut their fhells, as many teflacea ; 

 or imbibing nutriment by an immenfe number of 

 mouths on the furface of the body, as many ma- 

 rine animal plants. 



By this hafty glance at the animal fcale, we 

 arrive in the degradation at a race of beings, 

 which, to judge of their ftrudure and operations 

 compared with thofe of man, we fhould be more 

 inclined to deprive of a fentient mind than to be- 

 llow one upon them. Behold how much analo- 

 gical reafoning is enfeebled in the intermediate 



claiTes, 



