244 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



likewife an agent. Even of the higher kind of mind, I mean the 

 animal, we are fure there is in nature very great abundance. The 

 larger and better fort of animals, indeed, are not to be found in fo 

 great numbers ; nor is it fit they fliould : But the earth, air, and wa- 

 ter, fvvarm with fuch prodigious numbers of the lefler animals, that I 

 do not believe we have yet difcovered half the number of the fpeciefes 

 of them, Befides thofe that are vifible to the naked eye, glaffes difcover, 

 as it were, a new world of them; for we find that there is no part of any 

 animal or vegetable fubftance, dead or alive, in which we cannot dif- 

 cover, by the help of good microfcopes, life and motion, in various 

 forms and figures *. The vegetable life ftiU abounds more, and mul- 

 tiplies much fafter ; for it appears to be a rule of Nature, that what 

 is of an inferior kind abounds much more than what is more excel- 

 lent ; and, if fo, it is not to be wondered, that the mere loco-motive 

 life fhould abound much more than either the vegetable or animal. I 

 would not, however, affirm, that even that life is infinite, and with- 

 out bounds ; for, though all matter be infinitely divifible in idea, I 

 do not think there is any reafon to believe that, in fadt, it is fo divi- 

 ded. That human art cannot fo divide it, is evident ; nor do I be- 

 lieve that Nature has done it ; for Nature, as Ariftotle fays, abhores 

 infinity f* And, if it be true that the univerfe is one compleat fy- 

 {lem, which, I think, every Theift ought to believe, it muft necefla- 

 rily be bounded by number and meafure : For, where there is infi- 

 nity, in the proper fenfe of the word, there can be no fyftem ; and, 

 therefore, as undoubtedly there is a top of the pyramid, io there mufl: 

 be a bafis of certain and definite dimenfions. I hold, therefore, that 

 the Newtonian philofophy, and the Epicurean of old, are in the 



right, 



* Buffon's Nat. Hift. 



fi '^ I ipvc-i; (ftvyei T« MTTii^tv, And he adds the reafon, r* fit* y«g «xm§«i' ^tiajj, « J'l 

 ^ua-ii miH 4»)Ti< TsA.s. ' What is infinite has no end j but Nature always aims at an end.' 

 r)f Gen. Jnimaliumy lib. i. cap. i. 



