248 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. I.- 



' or vegetable kingdom- bearing the fmalleft rc- 

 ' latlon to productions fo different from all ihofe 

 ' hitherto known ? 1 fay the fame of the natural 

 ' divifion of the bell, and the fedions of the arm 

 ' polypus. Here is an order of things entirely 

 ' new, with particular laws, which we might dif- 

 ' cover if we had any method of penetrating in- 

 ' to the mechanifm of thefe minute beings. Wb 

 ' fhould then fee the relations conne6ling them 

 ' to the other parts of the organic fyftem. . . . But 



* i would not banifit analogical method from 

 ' philofophy; it condtifts rtfelf to obfervation by 

 ' the ideas which it aflbciates on' every fubj eft. 



* I only mean, that this method, otherwife of 

 ' great general utility, cannot be applied to phi- 



* lofophy with too much circumfpe£lion. . . . Have 

 'we ever had a. good trcatife on analogy, though 

 'th'e want has been feniibiy felt ? We fhall be 

 ' indebted to fome philofophic naturalift for it. 

 ' Analogy is conne«^ed with the dodrine of by- 



* pothefes and probabilities ; in- proportion as our 



* knowledge extends and is perfe£led, all proba- 



* bilities will approach to certainty. Could the 

 ' totality oi beings on our globe be comprehend- 



* ed, analogical reafoning- would be demonltra- 



* tion.* 



M. Trembley has greatly approved thefe PBi- 

 kfophical Confiderations on Polypi; and his ap- 

 probation flatters m.e the more as it is not inaif- 



criminatel;^ 



