ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 3 



dudion*, which is peculiar to animals and ve- 

 getables ; this fpecies of unity which always 

 lubfifts, and fecms to be eternal ; this generative 

 power, which is perpetually in a£tion, muft, 

 with regard to us, continue to he a myilery fo 

 profound, that we fhall probably never reach 

 its bottom. 



Even inanimated bodies, the ftones or the 

 dull under our feet, have fome properties ; their 

 very exiilence prefuppofes a great number ; and 

 matter, the mofl imperfedly organized, poffefTes 

 many relations with the other parts of the uni- 

 verl'e. We will not aliert, as Tome philofophers 

 have done, that matter, under whatever form it 

 appears, is confcious of its exiilence and of its 

 relative powers. This quefiion belongs to me- 

 taphyiics, of which v;e intend not. to treat. 

 AVe ihall only remark, that, being ignorant of 

 the extent of our own connections with exter- 

 nal objects, we cannot helitate in pronouncing 

 inanimated matter to be infinitely more ip— 

 norant. Befides, as our fenfations have not the 

 moil diftant refemblance to the caufes which 

 produce them, analogy obliges us to conclude, 

 that dead matter is neither endowed with fenti- 

 ment, with fenfation, nor with a confcioufnefs 

 of its own cxiftence. Hence, to attribute any of 



A 2 thcfe 



* This word is frequently ufed by the author, and requires 

 to be cxphiincd. It fignilics the power of producing or propa- 

 gating in general, and is ccjuully applicable to plants and to 

 animals. Generation is a fpecies of reprodu<5lIon peculiar to 

 animated beings. 



