53 



dies of the same sort, which always preserring a natu~ 

 ral tendency to reunite, produce again by their con* 

 junction with other similar particles, other bodies 

 of the same species. Vegetation and nutrition were 

 but means employed by nature tor the continu- 

 ation of beings : thus the different juices of the earth, 

 being composed of a collection of innumerable small 

 particles intermixed, constituting the different parts of 

 a tree or flower, take, according to the law of nature, 

 different arrangements ; and by the motion originally 

 impressed upon them, proceed, till arriving at the 

 places destined and proper for them, they collect them- 

 selves and halt to form all the different parts of that 

 tree or flower : in the same manner as many small im- 

 perceptible leaves go to the formation of the leaves 

 we see; many little parts of the fruits of different 

 kinds, to the composition of those which we eat ; 

 and so of the rest. The case was the same, according 

 to that philosopher, with respect to the nutrition of 

 animals. The bread we eat, and the other aliments 

 we take, turn themselves according to this system, 

 into hair, veins, arteries, nerves, and all the other 

 parts of our bodies ; because there are in those 

 aliments, the constituent parts of blood, nerves, 

 bones, hair, &c. which uniting with one another, 

 make themselves by their coalition perceptible, which 

 they were not before, because of their infinite small- 

 ness. 



4. Empedocles hath acknowledged the same with re. 

 spect to animal nutrition, which he says forms itself 

 out of the substance of aliments proper and accommo- 

 dated to the animal nature. He also (aught that mat- 

 ter had in it a living principle, a subtle active fire, 

 which put all in motion; and which Mr. de Buffoa 

 calls, by another name, organized matter, always 

 active; or, animated organic matter. A u d this mat. 

 ter, according to Empedocles, was distributed through 

 the tour elements among which it had an unitm* force 

 to bind them > and a separating, to pat them asunder 



