14 THE PHILOSOPHY 



fils which are nearly uniform in their configuration, we are not to 

 expefl: it in the more loofe and irregular parts of brute matter. 

 Here, Nature, regardlefs of fymmetry, conjoins heterogeneous mate- 

 rials, of which flie compofes irregular mafles. Many ftones, flints, 

 and other concretions, afford examples of this kind. More art, it 

 muft be acknowledged, appears in the formation of metals : But 

 their ftrudure exhibits no veftiges of organization. 



ANALOGIES, 



HAVING fhown the extreme difficulty of fixing the boundaries 

 which feparate the animal from the vegetable kingdom, I proceed 

 to the more pleafing tafk of enumerating fome of thofe beautiful 

 analogies which fubfift between them. To render this fubje(fl the 

 more agreeable and inftrudive, inftead of bringing together an un- 

 conneded mafs, I fhall trace the analogies between the animal and 

 plant, under the arrangement of Strn£lure and Organs, Growth and 

 Nonrijhment, DiJJemination and Decay. 



STRUCTURE and ORGANS. 



IN all organized bodies, a fimilarity of ftrudure feems to be un- 

 avoidable. The bodies of men and quadrupeds confift of a feries- 

 of conneded bones, which run from the head to the rump. This- 

 feries is known by the name of the back-bone, from each fide of 

 which, a number of arched bones proceed. Some of thefe join the 

 breaft-bone by means of cartilages, and form a vaulted cavity, which 

 contains and defends the heart, and other vifcera proper to the cheft. 

 1 The 



