MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



8S5 



be, it incloses an organization suit- 

 ed to the germination of a new 

 plant. Has the plant which pro- 

 duced the seed any thing more to do ' 

 with that organization tlian the 

 watch would have to do with the 

 structure of the watch which Mas 

 produced in the course of its me- 

 chanical movement ? I mean, has 

 it any thing at all to do with the 

 contrivance? The maker and con- 

 triver of one watch, when he in- 

 serted within it a mechanism suited 

 to the produ6tion of another watch, 

 was, in truth, the maker and con- 

 triver of that otiier watch. All tlie 

 properties of the new watch were to 

 be referred to his agency ; the de- 

 sign manifested in it, to his inten- 

 tion ; the art to him as the artist, 

 the colocaUon of each part to his 

 placing; the action, elfeCt, and use, 

 to his counsel, intelligence, and 

 workmanship. In producing it by 

 the intervention of a former watch, 

 [ he was only working by one set of 

 tools instead of another. So it is 

 with the plant, and the seed produc- 

 ed by it. Can any distinction be as- 

 signed between the two cases ; be- 

 tween the producing watch, and the 

 producing plant? both passive, un- 

 conscious substances; both, by the 

 organization which was given to 

 them, producing their like, without 

 understanding or design, both, that 

 is, instruments. 



2. From plants, wc may proceed 

 to oviparous animals; from seeds to 

 eggs. Now I say that the bird has 

 the same concern in the formation of 

 the egg which she lays, as the plant 

 has in that of the seed which it 

 drops, and no other, nor greater. 

 The internal constitution of the egg 

 is as much a secret to the hen, as if 

 the hen were inanimate. Her will 

 cannot alter it, or change a single 



feather of the chick. She can nei- 

 ther foresee nor determine of which 

 sex her brood shall be, or how many 

 of either; yet the thing produced 

 shall be, from the first, very differ- 

 ent in its make, according to the 

 si-x which it bears. So far, there- 

 fore, from adapting the means, she 

 is not before-hand apprized of the 

 eli["e6t. If there be concealed with- 

 in that smooth shell a provision and 

 a preparation for the production and 

 nourishment of a new animal, they 

 are not of her providing or pre- 

 paring : if there be contrivance, it 

 is none of hers. Although, there- 

 fore, there be the diUerence of life 

 and perceptivity between the ani- 

 mal and the plant, it is a difference 

 vr'hich enters not into the account. 

 It is a foreign circumstance. It is 

 a difference of properties not em- 

 ployed. The animal fun('iion and 

 the vegetable function are alike des- 

 titute of any which can operate upon 

 the form of the thing produced. 

 The plant has no design in produc- 

 ing the seed, no comprehension of 

 the Aturc or use of what it pro- 

 duces : the bird, with respect to its 

 egg, is not above the plant with re- 

 speft to its seed. Neither the one 

 nor the other bears that sort of re- 

 lation to what proceeds from them 

 which a joiner does to the chair 

 which he makes. Now a cause, 

 which bears this relation to the ef- 

 fect, is what we Avant, in order to 

 account for the suitableness of 

 means to an end, the fitness and fit- 

 ting of one thing to another; and 

 this cause the parent plant or ani- 

 mal does not supply. 



It is further observable concern- 

 ing the propagation of plants and 

 animals, that the apparatus employ- 

 ed exhibits no resemblance to the 

 thing produced; in this respeft 



3 L 3 holding 



