f. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 237 



I cannot leave mouldinefs without a refledlioii 

 which I made only a moment before ; that one 

 could not make ufe of analogy here. More than 

 once have I had an opportunity of applying the 

 fame refledtion to the polypus. The naturalifts, 

 who ftudy microfcopic plants, fhould therefore 

 be very referved in their opinions of the various 

 fingularities they prefent to view. If real logici- 

 ans, they will not infift on transferring the ideas 

 applicable to vegetables of the higher ciaffes to 

 thofe of the lower. Nature has not been reflric- 

 ted to work always on the fame models. Thefe 

 have been infinitely varied by the Divine Author. 

 Obfervation alone can difcover the direction 

 which HIS WISDOM has prefcribed to Nature, re- 

 lative to the different clalfes of organifed beings. 

 The bounds to view and review are here ; and 

 individuals muft only be compared with the near- 

 efl fpftcies. Who knows that ail mouldinefs ac- 

 tually belongs to the clafs of vegetables ? Who 

 knows but there may be fomething whofe forma- 

 tion approaches nearer to chryftallization than 

 evolution ? The fame may be faid of many other 

 analogous produflions, whofe properties have not 

 yet been inveftigated. It is not impoirible that 



feveral 



thing on the fubje£t ; becaufe only one or tv/o refults on 

 the plants had been obtained. But I had occafion after- 

 wards to penetrate the matter deeper, as will appear by 

 my obfervations and erpcriments on the origin of the- 

 plantuls of mould* 



