2 ANALOGIES BETWEEN 



principle. It is ihis number of relations alone 

 which render the animal fuperior to the vege- 

 table, and the vegetable to the mineral. Man, 

 if we eftimate him by his material part alone, is 

 fuperior to the brute creation only from the 

 number of peculiar relations he enjoys by means 

 of his hand and of his tongue ; and, though all 

 the operations of the Omnipotent arc in them- 

 felves equally pertedt, the animated being, ac- 

 cordin^<^- to our mode of perception, is the moft 

 complete ; and man is the moft finiihed and 

 perfcd: animal. , 



What a variety of fprings, of powers, and of 

 mechanical movements, are included In that 

 fmall portion of matter of which the body of an 

 animal is compofed ! What a number of rela- 

 tions, what harmony, what correfpondence a- 

 mong the different parts ! Kow many combina- 

 tions, arrangements, caufes,efleds, and principles, 

 all confpiring to accompliih the fame defign ! 

 Of thefe we know nothing but by their refults, 

 which are £o difficult to comprehend, that they 

 ceafe only to be miraculous from our habits of 

 inattention and our want of refled:ion. 



But, however admirable this work may ap- 

 pear, the greateft miracle is not exhibited in the 

 individual. It is in the fucceflive renovation, 

 and in the continued duration' of the fpecies, 

 that Nature alTumes an afped; altogether incon- 

 ceivable and aftonifliing. This faculty of repro- 



dudion, 



