^26 THE PHILOSOPHY 



have fuch a refemblance, both in their external and Internal 

 llrudture, to terreftrial quadrupeds, that fome naturaHfts, in 

 their methodical diftrlbutions, have ranked them under the 

 ilame clafs of animals. The bats and the flying fquirrels, who 

 traverfe the air by means of membranous inftead of feather- 

 ed wings, evidently connedl quadrupeds with birds. The 

 oftrich, the cafTowary, and the dodo, who rather run than 

 fly, form another link between the quadruped and the bird. 



All the fubftances we recognife on this earth may be di- 

 vided into organifed and animated, organlfed and inanimat- 

 ed, and unorganifed, or brute matter. The whole of thefe 

 pofl^efs degrees of perfe^Ion, of excellence, or of relative 

 utiUty, proportioned to their ftations or ranks in the unlverfe. 

 Change thefe ftations or ranks, and another world would be 

 necefl^ary to contain and fupport them. Beings muft not be 

 contemplated individually, but by their rank, and the rela- 

 tions they have to the conftituent parts of the general fyfliem 

 of Nature. Certain refults of their natures we confider as 

 evils. Deftroy thefe evils, and you annihilate the beings 

 who complain of them. The reciprocal acStion of the folids 

 and fluids conftitutes life, and the continuation of this action 

 is the natural caufe of death. Immortality on this earth, 

 therefore, prefuppofes another fyftem ; for our planet has 

 no relation to immortal beings. Every animal, and every 

 plant, rifes, by gentle gradations, from an embryo, or gela- 

 tinous ftate, to a certain degree of perfection exactly propor- 

 tioned to their feveral orders. An afl"emblage of all the 

 orders of relative perfecStion confl:itutes the abfolute perfec- 

 tion of the whole. All the planets of this fyftem gravitate 

 toward the fun and toward each other. Our fyftem gravi- 

 tates towards other fyftems, and they to ours. Thus the 

 whole unlverfe is linked together by a gradual and almoft 

 imperceptible chain of exiftences both animated and inani- 

 mated. Were there no other argument in favour of the 



