GRADATION OF OBJECTS. 419 



Yet this gradation, striking as it is, deserves not the epithet 

 regular or insensible. " The highest being not infinite must be, 

 as has been often observed, at an infinite distance below infinity." 

 " And in this distance between finite and infinite there will be 

 room for ever for an infinite series of indefinable existence. Be- 

 tween the lowest positive existence and nothing, wherever we 

 suppose existence to cease, is another chasm infinitely deep } 

 where there is room again for endless orders of subordinate beings, 

 continued for ever and ever, and yet infinitely superior to non- 

 ' existence." " Nor is this all. In the scale, wherever it begins 

 or ends, are infinite vacuities. At whatever distance we suppose 

 the next order of beings to be above man, there is room for an 

 intermediate order of beings between them, and if for one order 

 then for infinite orders ; since every thing that admits of more 

 or less, and consequently all the parts of that which admits them> 

 may be infinitely divided. So that as far as we can judge, there 

 may be room in the vacuity between any two steps of the scale, 

 or between any two points of the cone, for infinite exertion of 

 infinite power, f 



In fact, at how vast a distance do we see the innate mental 

 properties of man standing above those of the most sagacious 

 brute ! how immensely does the volition of the lowest animal 

 raise it above the whole vegetable kingdom ! and how deep the 

 chasm between the vital organisation of the meanest vegetable 

 and a mass of inanimate matter ! Gradation must be admitted, 

 but it is far from regular or insensible. Neither does it at all 

 regard perfection of system, nor very much the degree, but 

 chiefly the excellence and, within the limits of the visible world, 

 the combination, of properties. Man, placed at the summit of 

 terrestrial objects by the excellence of his mind and the combi- 

 nation of the common properties of matter, of those of vege- 

 tables, and of those of brutes, with those peculiar to himself, is 

 surpassed by the dog, in acuteness of smell and by the oak in 



+ Dr. Johnson, Review of a Free Enquiry into the nature and origin of evil. 

 2 K 2 



