I N G E N E R A L. 21 



perhaps, more difficult and rare to be found in 

 Nature, than the complex forms of plants or of 

 ■animals. It is in this manner that w-e perpetU'- 

 ally confider the abftrad as fimple, and the real 

 as complex. But, in nature, no abftrad: exifls; 

 nothing is llmple ; every object is compounded. 

 We are unable to penetrate into the intimate 

 ftrudure of bodies. We cannot, therefore, de- 

 termine what objects are more or lefs complex, 

 unlefs by the greater or lefs relation they have 

 to ourfelves, and to to th-e refl of the univerfe. 

 Eor this reafon we regard the animal as being 

 more complex than the vegetable, and the vege-* 

 table than the mineral. With refpedl to us, this 

 notion is juft ; but we know not whether the a- 

 nimal, vegetable, or mineral, be, in reality, the 

 moft complex or the moft fimple ; and we are 

 ignorant whether the producSlion of a globe or a 

 .cube requires a greater eiTort of Nature than that 

 of a germ, or an organic particle. If we were 

 to indulge in conjed:ures upon this fubjed:, we 

 might imagine that the moft common and nu- 

 merous objefts are the moft fimple. But this 

 iv'ould make animals more fimple than plants or 

 minerals; becaufe the former exceed the latter- 

 in number of fpecics. 



But, without dwelling longer on this fubjed:, 

 it is fufficient to have fliown, that all our no- 

 tions concerning fimple and compound are ab- 

 lirad: ideas ; that they cannot be applied to the 

 '"omplex operations of nature; that, when we 



B 3 attempt 



