PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 31 



lion ? Whether a latent plantule with the means of tem- 

 porary nutrition, or whatever else it be, it encloses an or- 

 ganization suited to the germination of a new plant. Has 

 the plant which produced the seed any thing more to do 

 with that organization, than the watch would have had to 

 do with the structure of the watch which was produced in 

 the course of its mechanical movement ? I mean, Has it any 

 thing at all to do with the contrivance ? The maker and con- 

 triver of one watch when he inserted within it a mechanism 

 suited to the production of another watch, was, in truth, 

 the maker and contriver of that other watch. All the prop- 

 erties of the new watch were to be referred to his agency ; 

 the design manifested in it, to his intention ; the art, to him, 

 as the artist ; the collocation of each part, to his placing ; 

 the action, effect, and use, to his counr^el, intelligence, and 

 Avorkmanship. In producing it by the intervention of a 

 formiCr v/atch, he was only working by one set of tools in- 

 stead of another. So it is with the plant, and the seed 

 produced by it. Can any distmction be assigned between 

 the two cases; between the producing watch, and the pro- 

 ducing plant? Both passive, unconscious substances; 

 both, by the organization which was given to them, pro- 

 ducing their like without understanding or design ; both, 

 that is, instruments. 



II. From plants we may proceed to oviparous animals; 

 from seeds to Ci^gs. Now, I say, that the bird has the same 

 concern in the formation of the egg which she lays, as the 

 plant has m 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 inan- 

 imate. Her will cannot alter it, or change a single feather 

 of the chick. 8he can neither 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 different 

 in its make, according to the sex which it bears So far, 

 therefore, from adapting the means, she is not beforehand 

 apprized of the effect. If there be concealed within that ' 

 smooth shell a provision and a preparation for the produc- 

 tion and nourishment of a new animal, they are not of her 

 providing or preparing ; if there be contrivance, it is none 

 of hers. Although, therefore, there be the difference of 

 life and perceptivity between the animal and the plant, it is 

 a difference which enters not into the account. It is a for- 

 eign circumstance. It is a difference of properties not 

 employed. The animal function and the vegetable func- 



