160 .. 



observers, as had not seen it in its primitive state ? fs 

 not the pond muscle deficient in many things viejfrdge 

 to be necessary for the ai imal ? How many shell-fish are 

 still farther degraded ? Kay more, there may probably 

 exist some animals, which it would be impossible for us 

 to acknowledge as such, even though (heir whole struc- 

 ture, as well internal as external, should be laid open 

 to us; the reason is, that judging only according to our 

 present notions, we cannot deduce from- this structure the 

 opinion of life, 



15. t cannot yet quit this subject, We are not able 

 to conceive all the methods by which the AUTHOR of 

 nature has given life and sensation to a prodigious num- 

 ber of different beings. Let as jude of them at. least 

 by a comparison of a small number of animated beings 

 ive are acqamted with. How greatly does life differ in 

 the ape and bell polypus 7 What intermediate degree* 

 are there betwixt these two terms? Perhaps there ar 

 still more from, this polypus to the last of animals. I 

 do not examine if souls have been varied like bodies; 

 but I conceive thht organized matter has been modified 

 infinite wa\s, to which have corresponded as many dif- 

 ferent methods of participating life and sensation. I 

 likewise conceive that the same soul, if placed succes- 

 sively in all the organized bodies that exist, would suc- 

 cessively experience all the possible modifications of life 

 and sensibility* This soul would pass through all the 

 degrees of animality ; and if she could remember them 

 all, and compare them, she would equal the superior in- 

 telligences in knowledge. She would contemplate our 

 world through all those glasses that have been given to 

 the various beings that inhabit it. 



16. Let r.s draw a general consequence from all this : 

 that analogy, which is one of the great lights of physics, 

 is not caj iiyle of dissipating the shades of it. This light 

 is freo t i er:tly .extinguished on the approach of certain 

 l*od : es which we. bring to the touch of experiment. To 

 what purpose does analogy serve in the examination of 

 ihe &/-polypus] \Ve cannot even define these lulbs; 



