ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 13 



fpecles are the moft prolific. In proportion as 

 animals feem to be more perfed, the number of 

 individuals decreafes. Does the production of 

 particular forms of body, necelTary for the per- 

 fecting of fentimenc, as thofe of quadrupeds, and 

 of birds, coft nature more expence of organic 

 particles than the production of inferior crea- 

 tures ? 



Let us now compare animals and vegetables 

 with regard to fituation, fize, and figure. Ve- 

 getables can exift no where but on the earth. 

 Molt of them are attached to the foil by roots: 

 Some, as truffles, are entirely covered with the 

 foil ; and a few grovv' under water. But the 

 whole require a connection with the furface of 

 the earth. Animals, on the contrary, are more 

 generally difiufed. Some inhabit the furface, and 

 others the interior parts of the earth. Some ne- 

 ver rife above the bottom of the ocean, and o- 

 thers fwim in the waters. The air, the internal 

 parts of plants, the bodies of men and of other 

 animals, and even ftones themfclves, are ftored 

 with inhabitants. 



By the afiiftance of the microfcope, many new 

 fpccics of animals have been difcovered. But, 

 what is fingular, we are not indebted to this in- 

 ftrument for above one or two fpecies of plants. 

 The fmall mofs, of which mouldinefs confilts, 

 is perhaps the only microfcopic plant that has 

 been dcicribed. From this it would appear, that 

 Nature has rcfufed cxiftcnce to very fmall plants, 



while 



