148 MEMOIRS OF 



parison is made, point by point. There is not 

 less hiatus in the affinities of parts than in the 

 scale of beings ; in vain, in order to escape con- 

 viction, arbitrary suppositions are brought for- 

 ward in the overthrow of organs incompatible 

 with the links which attach them to the rest of 

 the body, in vain, as a last resource, is figu- 

 rative language (whicli no logic can penetrate) 

 made use of; they are obliged to confess tliat 

 certain parts, often numerous, are wanting in 

 certain beings, without any apparent reason for 

 their absence, other tlian because they did not 

 agree with the whole of the being ; and if in 

 these pretended theories we seek a rational and 

 general basis, what is to be found except the 

 supposition of a nature limited in her mode of 

 action ? 



" In fact, if we look back to the Author of 

 all things, what other law could actuate liim 

 than the necessity of according to each being, 

 whose existence is to be continued, the means 

 of insuring that existence ; and why could he 

 not vary his materials and his instruments ? 

 Fixed laws of co-existence in organs were then 

 necessary, but that was all ; for, to establish 

 others, there must have been a want of freedom 

 in the action of the organising principle, which 



