24 THE PHILOSOPHY 



It is almoft unnecclTary to mark the diftincSlIon between 

 vegetables and minerals. The tranlition from the animal to 

 the plant is efFe(51:ed by fhades Co imperceptible, as to elude 

 the moft acute obfervers. But, between the plant and the 

 mineral, there is a vaft chafm in the chain of being, which 

 may be the fource of great difcoveries. In bodies purely 

 mineral, not a veftige of organization can be difcovcred. The 

 fibrous ftru6lure of the afbeftos has been regarded as an ap- 

 proach towards organization, and as llie link which connedls 

 the mineral to the vegetable kingdom. But this is one of 

 thofe {Irained analogies which are too often employed by 

 theoretical writers. Though the aibeftos is compofed of a 

 kind of threads or fibres, thefe fibres are not tubular 5 nei- 

 ther are they interwoven, like that regular tilTue or fabrig 

 which fo remarkably diftinguifhes organized from brute mat- 

 ter. Of courfe, the magnitude of the afbeftos can only be 

 jncreafed by the appolition of new matter, and not by any 

 developement or expanfion of parts. But though, in the 

 mineral kingdom, nature ceafes to organize, fhe continues to 

 arrange. 



The regular configuration of falts, chryftals^ and other pre- 

 cious flones, has been confidered by fome authors as the re- 

 fult of an organic procefs. But the uniform figure of falts 

 and chryftals may be the efteft of certain laws of attra(Slion 

 peculiar to each fpecies. None of thefe particles can be re- 

 garded as a germ or bud. They are only the elements or 

 conftituent parts, which, when applied to each other, form 

 a whole. They never expand or grow, like the embrios of 

 animals or plants. They remain for ever in the fame flat e 

 without diminution or increafe, except v/hen feparated by 

 force, or magnified by an accumulation of frefii matter. The 

 chryflalline juice is not aflimulated by vefiels : It is prepared 

 by a chymical operation of nature. The bodies of plants 

 ^nd animals are machines, exceedingly ela'borate, and more 



