BARON CUVIER. 79 



and will, but secondary and limited with regard to power, 

 that we are able to say of her. that she unceasingly 

 watches over the preservation of her works, that she 

 makes nothing in vain, that she efiects all by the most 

 simple methods, that she contributes to the cure of diseases, 

 but that she is sometimes overcome by the force of malady ; 

 and other adages ; many of which are only true in a very 

 limited sense, and in a very dilfeient manner from that 

 which they seem to offer at the first glance. ... In propor- 

 tion as the knowledge of asironom}^ physics, and chemis- 

 try has been extended, these sciences have renounced the 

 false reasoning which resulted from the application of this 

 figurative language to real phenomena. Some physiolo- 

 gists only have continued to use it, because the obscurity 

 in which physiology is still enveloped, renders it necessary 

 to attribute some reality to the phantoms of abstraction, in 

 order to practise illusion on themselves and others, concern- 

 ing their profound ignorance as touching vital motion. 



" Nevertheless, this ancient idea of an active but subor- 

 dinate principle, distinct from ordinary forms, and the laws 

 of motion which should preside over organization, and 

 which should keep it in order, still prevails, not only in 

 language, but in the systems of a great many writers, 

 who, although they allow the justice of the distinctions 

 we have now made, yet suffer themselves to be drawn un- 

 consciously towards doctrines which have no other founda- 

 tion. Such are the doctrines of the ' Scale of Nature,' the 

 • Unity of composition,' and others similar to these, which 

 have all been imagined in consequence of the behef in a 

 Nature distinct from the Creator, and less pow^erful than 

 he is, and which have no evident support, but in those fan- 

 cied limits which they place to his power. 



" That each effect may proceed from a cause, which 

 cause is to be traced to an anterior cause ; that in this 

 manner all events, all successive phenomena, may be link- 

 ed together ; that there may be no interruption in the 

 march of nature, and that we may, in this sense, com- 

 pare her to a chain, all the rings of which are attached 

 to and follow each other ; is evident on the least reflection. 

 That the beings which exist in the world are so construct- 

 ed as to maintain a permanent order ; that they have, con- 



