C44 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. I. 



Therefore it appears, that abiding by the hQ.s 

 beft known, and aided by found philofophy, we 

 have reafon to affirm, that organifed wholes are not 

 daily formed by a fort of fecret mechanifm, or 

 that they are not prefently generated. This we 

 may admit, at lead: it is very probable, that they 

 have been preformed from the firil : but we 

 fliouid bev/are of prefuming that we know every 

 mode in which the Author of nature has ori- 

 ginally preformed the multitudes of organifed 

 beings peophng our planet. The propagation 

 of the duller polypus, and other polypi fmiilar, 

 is far remote from the generations moll famili- 

 ar to us ; neverthelefs, flrange as it appears, 

 it has a conflant regularity and uniformity, 

 which is not fallacious, and mufl convince us 

 that it is fubjecled to fixed laws, as every other 

 mode of propagation, which new refearches will 

 demonflrate more and more. If all the produce 

 tions of nature are connected by a continued 

 chain, it neceffarily follows, that the generation 

 of polypi is attached to thofe of other animals 

 by certain links which we are not yet wife enough 

 to difcover. The whole of thefe generations 

 ihould poiTefs fome common or very general cha- 

 racler, which is as a centre to which all con- 

 verge. This centre probably conceals a general 

 preformation. If it exifled in animals forming 

 mechanically, they would not converge to this 



common 



