2 GRADATION OF OBJECTS. 



non-existence." " Nor is this all. In the scale, wherever it begins 

 or ends, are infinite vacuities. At whatever distance we suppose 

 the next order of beings to be above man, there is room for an 

 intermediate order of beings between them, and if for one order 

 then for infinite orders ; since every thing that admits of more 

 or less, and, consequently, all the parts of that which admits 

 them, may be infinitely divided. So that, as far as we can judge, 

 there may be room in the vacuity between any two steps of the 

 scale, or between any two points of the cone, for infinite exertion 

 of infinite power." b 



In fact, at how vast a distance do we see the innate mental 

 properties of man standing above those of the most sagacious 

 brute ! How immensely does the volition of the lowest animal 

 raise it above the whole vegetable kingdom ! And how deep the 

 chasm between the vital organisation of the meanest vegetable 

 and a mass of inanimate matter ! Gradation must be admitted, 

 but it is far from regular or insensible. Neither does it at all 

 regard perfection of system, nor very much the degree, but 

 chiefly the excellence, and, within the limits of the visible world, 

 the combination, of properties. Man, placed at the summit of 

 terrestrial objects by the excellence of his mind and the combi- 

 nation of the common properties of matter, of those of vege- 

 tables, and of those of brutes, with those peculiar to himself, is 

 surpassed by the dog in acuteness of smell and by the oak in 

 magnitude, nor can he boast of more perfection than the gnat or 

 the thistle in their kinds* 



Substances consist of Particles endowed with certain properties 

 without which their existence cannot be conceived, viz. extension 

 and impenetrability; with others which proceed, indeed, from 

 their existence, but are capable of being subdued by opposing 

 energies, viz. mobility, inertness ; and with others apparently 

 neither necessary to their existence nor flowing from it, but 

 merely superadded : for example, various attractions and repul- 

 sions, and various powers of affecting animated systems. 



INANIMATE SUBSTANCES may be gaseous, liquid, or solid. If 

 solid, the inanimate body has no properties which are not analogous 

 to these, or even dependent upon them. It is for the most part 



b Dr. Johnson, Review of a Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil. 



