NATURAL THEOLOGY. 57 



another ; and this cause the parent plant or animal 

 does not supply. 



It is further observable concerning the propa- 

 gation of plants and animals, that the apparatus 

 employed exhibits no resemblance to the thing 

 produced ; in this respect, holding an analogy with 

 instruments and tools of art. The filaments, an- 

 therae, and stigmata of flowers, bear no more re- 

 semblance to the young plant, or even to the seed 

 which is formed by their intervention, than a 

 chisel or a plane does to a table or chair. What 

 then are the filaments, antheroe, and stigmata of 

 plants but instruments, strictly so called ? 



III. We may advance from animals which bring 

 forth eggs to animals which bring forth their 

 young alive ; and of this latter class, from the 

 lowest to the highest ; from irrational to rational 

 life, from brutes to the human species ; without 

 perceiving, as we proceed, any alteration what- 

 ever in the terms of the comparison. The rational 

 animal does not produce its offspring with more 

 certainty or success than the irrational animal : a 

 man than a quadruped, a quadruped than a bird ; 

 nor (for we may follow the gradation through its 

 whole scale) a bird than a plant ; nor a plant than a 

 watch, a piece of dead mechanism, would do, 

 upon the supposition which has already so often 

 been repeated. Rationality, therefore, has nothing 

 to do in the business. If an account must be given 

 of the contrivance which we observe ; if it be de- 

 manded, whence arose either the contrivance by 



