223 REFLECTIONS ON 



out any repofe, is common to animals ; and if, 

 from this circumftance, we ought not to doubt 

 concerning the real animation of thefe moving 

 bodies ? An animal fhould always have a uni- 

 form figure, as well as diftin<3: members : But 

 thefe moving bodies change their figure every 

 moment ; they have no diftind: members ; and 

 there tails are only adventitious matter, and no 

 part of the individual. How, then, can they be 

 efteemed real animals ? In feminal liquors, we 

 fee filaments which ftretch out, and feem to ve- 

 getate ; then they fwell and produce moving bo- 

 dies. Thefe filaments are, perhaps, of a vege- 

 table nature ; but the moving bodies which pi oceed 

 from them cannot be animals ; for we have no 

 example of vegetables giving birth to animals. 

 Moving bodies are found in all animal and ve- 

 getable fubftances promiicuoufly. They are not 

 the produce of generation. They have no uni- 

 formity of fpecies. They cannot, therefore, be 

 either animals or vegetables. As they are to be 

 met with in every part of animals and of ve- 

 getables, but are moft abundant in their feeds, is 

 it not natural to regard them as the organic living 

 particles of which animals and vegetables are 

 compofed, as particles v^hich, being endowed 

 with motion, and a fpecies of life, ought to 

 produce, by their union, moving and living 

 beings, and, in this manner, form animals and 

 vegetables ? 



But, 



