L ANIMALCUL'X Ol? INFUSIONS. 34 1 



cd, and is mentioned, § 279, de PEffai de Ana- 

 iytiquefur rAme^ arid Art. 20, de r Analyje Ah- 

 regee, Wn i.^PaVw^enefie, ' We want a book/ 

 I there obferved, f' and that book would be the 

 ' moft ufeful thathuraan genius could invent ; it 



* v/ould be a Hijicire de r Attention. If well 



* compofed, and maturely iludied, it woiiid over- 

 ' turn all logic ; that is, it wculd be logic reftor- 

 *ed to adion.* 



In my three laft writings, I have infifted much 

 on the important leflbn afforded by polypi, con- 

 cerning the imaginary general rules of analogy. 

 in chap. 16. .pnrt 8. de.la Contemplation, I faid, 

 •^ This is not the time to form general rules, to ar- 



* range nature . . . . to raife a flru6:ure which f«i- 



* ture ages, more learned and more philofophical, 



* will even hefitate to projeft. When we fcarce- 

 *^ ly knew the animal, we undertook to define it: 

 '^now, when a little better acquainted with it, 



* {hall we prefume to fuppofe we know itcom- 

 ' pletely ?. . . . How many animals ftill more extrs.- 



* ordinary than the polypus may cxifi;, and may 



* confound all our reafoning if we fhould happen 



* • to difcover tiiem ! We iliall then have to in- 

 ^ vent a new language to defcnbe our obferva- 

 ^ lions. Polypi are the extremities of a new 



* univerfe v/hich one day will have its Columbus 



* and Vefpucius. Is it to be conceived that the 

 ^ interior of a country has been penetrated with 



■ Vol. L O ' only 



