THE EXPERIMENTS. 217 



whole taken together that a general idea muft be 

 formed ; and, as this whole is compofed of dif- 

 ferent parts, there muft of necefTuy be degrees 

 or intervals between thefe parts. An infedt, in 

 this fenfe, is lels an animal than a dog, an oyfter 

 than an infed:, and a fea-ncttle, or a frefh water 

 polypus, than an oyfter : And, as Nature proceeds 

 by infenfible degrees, we fhould find beings par- 

 taking of ftill leis animation than a fea-nettle or 

 a polypus. Our general ideas are only artificial 

 methods of collecting a number of objects un- 

 der one point of view ; and they have, like 

 other artificial methods, the defe<^ of not being 

 able to comprehend the whole/ They are in 

 ■dired oppofition to the procedure of Nature, 

 which is viniform, infenfible, and always parti- 

 cular. It is to grafp a number of particular 

 ideas under one word, of which w^e have no 

 clearer notion than that word conveys ; becaufe, 

 when the word is once received, we imagine it 

 to be a line drawn between the different pio- 

 dudlions of nature ; that every thing above this 

 line is an animal^ and every thing below it a 've- 

 getable^ which is another word equally general, 

 and employed as a line of reparation between 

 organized bodies and brute matter. But, as has 

 already been remarked, ihcle lines of feparation 

 have no exiftencc in nature. There are bodies 

 which are neither animals, vegetables, nor mi- 

 nerals ; and every attempt to arrange them un- 

 der either of thcfc dalles muft be ineflcdual. 



For 



