SECT. XXXIX. 4 GENERATION. 575 



fuckle ; or by growing upon them like the mifleto, 

 and taking nourifhment from their barks ; or by 

 only lodging or adhering on them, and deriving 

 nourifhment from the air, as tillandfia. 



Shall we then fay the vegetable living filament 

 was originally different from that of each tribe of 

 animals above defcribed ? And that the productive 

 living filament of each of thofe tribes was diffeient 

 originally from the other? Or, as the earth and 

 ocean were probably peopled with vegetable pro- 

 ductions long before me exiftence of animals ; and 

 many families of thefe animals long before other 

 families of them, fhall we conje&ure that one and 

 the fame kind of living filaments is and has been 

 the caufe of all organic life ? 



This idea of the gradual formation and improve- 

 ment of the animal world accords with the obfer- 

 vaiions of fome modern philofophers, who have fup- 

 pofed ihat the continent of America has been raifed 

 out of the ocean at a later period of time than the 

 other three quarters of the globe, which they de- 

 duce from the greater comparative heights of its 

 mountains, and the confequent greater coldnefs of 

 its refpeftive climates, and from the lefs fize and 

 ftrength of its animals, as the tigers and alligators 

 compared with thofe of Afia or Africa. And laftly, 

 from the lefs progrefs in the improvements of the 

 mind of its inhabitants in refpeft to voluntary excr- 

 cions. 



This idea of the gradual formation and improve- 

 ment of the animal world feems not to have been 

 unknown to the ancient philofophers. Plato having 

 probably obferved the reciprocal generation of in- 

 ferior animals, as fnails and worms, was of opinion, 

 that mankind with all other animals were originally 

 hermaphrodites during the infancy of the world> 

 and were in procefs of time feparated into male and 

 female. The brealls and teats of all male quadru- 



