34 OF REPRODUCTION 



when an idea includes nothing more than com- 

 parilbn, it ought to be regarded as fimple; and, 

 confequently, it can contain nothing contradic- 

 tory. The idea of an internal niould is of this 

 fpecies. There is in nature a quality known by 

 the name of gravity, which penetrates the in- 

 ternal parts of bodies. I underftand the idea of 

 an internal mould to be relative to gravity ; and, 

 therefore, as it includes only a comparifon, it 

 can imply no contradiction. 



Let us now trace the confequences which 

 maybe drawn from thisfuppoiition ; let us like- 

 wife inveftigate fuch fads as may correfpond 

 with it; and the more analogies we can colled, 

 the fuppofition will be rendered the more pro- 

 bable. We fhall. begin with unfolding the idea of 

 internal moulds ; and then explain how it may 

 lead us to conceive the mode of reprodudion. 



Nature, in general, appears to have a greater 

 bias towards life than death: She feems anxious 

 to organize bodies as much as poflible. Of this 

 the multiplication of germs, which may be in- 

 finitely increafed, is a convincing proof; and it 

 may be fafely affirmed, that, if all matter is not 

 organized, it is only becaufe organized beings 

 deftroy one another ; for we can increafe at 

 pleafure the number of animals and vegetables ; 

 but we. cannot augment the quantity of ftones 

 or of dead matter; which feems to indicate, that 

 the moft ordinary and familiar operation of Na- 

 ture 



