178 FORMATION OF COMPOUND BODIES. 



(which may very properly be called elements.* 

 with relation to the ultimate effect) are altoge- 

 ther different in their simple, from what they 

 are found to be in their combined, state ; inso- 

 much, that the definition that would point out 

 the nature of the one, would, in no way, apply 

 to the other. It is, therefore, of importance, 

 that we should endeavour to trace the means by 

 which such an infinite multitude of bodies exist, 

 out of elements which are, apparently, few in 

 number, and whose properties are certainly 

 different from what they were before.* 



If all the matter of which the universe 

 is composed, had been of one simple elemen- 

 tary kind ; or if that element, like the solid 



in capacity, before it actually existed in energy ^- In this 

 way he conceived that plants exist in the seed animals in the 

 embryo- works of art, in the idea of the artist ; and, in 

 short, that every thing which is made, existed in the cause by 

 which it was produced ; the thing, therefore, which was pro- 

 duced by capacity towards energy, from what to what, is 

 the state between both, having a connexion between each of 

 them. 



* If the principle of vitality had been the same throughout 

 the wide range of animated existence, all animals and vegeta- 

 bles, instead of being different in nature, and in kind, would 

 have been alike in figure, and in form ; and, if attraction, and 

 the principle of attraction, exerted its energy on matter of the 

 same kind, it is probable that all the matter of the universe, 

 would either be all pasivity, or all power; all inertness, or all 

 activity. 



