OF NATURAL HISTORY. 25 



or lefs complicated. Thefe machines, by means of difFerent 

 organs, have the power of converting other animals and ve- 

 getables into their own fubftance. By this affimulation, all 

 their dimenfions are increafed ; and their various parts uni- 

 formly prefer ve the fame proportions with regard to each 

 other, and continue to perform their refpedlive funcflions. 

 Befides, organized bodies not only multiply their fpecies, 

 but fome of them pofTefsthe power of reproducing fuch parts 

 as are forcibly abftradled from them. 



In thefe and many other qualities common to the animal 

 and vegetable, there is not the fmalleft analogy to be found 

 in the mineral kingdom. Between the mofi: regular foffils, 

 as falts and chryftals, and the moft imperfect animal or ve- 

 getable, the diftance is immenfe. Figured foffils are not 

 more organized than a column or a portico. In the formation 

 of the former, nature^ in that of the latter, man, is the artift. 

 When no iimilarity is to be dilcovered in thofe foffils which 

 are nearly uniform in their configuration, we are not to eX" 

 pe£l: it in the more loofe and Irregular parts of brute matter. 

 Here, nature, regardlefs of fymmetry, conjoins heterogeneous 

 materials of which fhe compofes irregular malTes. Many 

 ftones, flints, and other concretions, afford examples of tHis 

 kind. More art, it muft be acknowledged, appears in the for^ 

 mation of metals : but their flructure exhibits no veftiges of 

 organization, 



ANALOGIES. 

 HAVING fhown the extreme difficulty of fixing the boun- 

 daries which f?parate the animal from the vegetable king- 

 dom, I proceed to the more pleafing taflc of enumerating 

 fpme of thofe beautiful analogies which fubfifl between them. 

 To render this fubjeift the more agreeable and inftrudtive, in- 

 itcad of bringing together an unconne^led mafs, I fliall trace 

 ihe analogies between the animal and plant, under the ar- 

 rangement of JiruBure and organs^ grcivih and nourijl.mcnt ^ dif-. 

 ft'minaUon cud demy. 



