7T4- THEPHILOSOPHY 



includes the rudiments of the whole animals or vegetables which 

 are to proceed from it during all fucceffive generations. 



With regard to vegetables, it is true, that the feed firft produces 

 a fmall tree, which it contained in miniature within its lobes. At 

 the top of this fmall tree a bud or germ is formed, which contains 

 the fhoot or tree that is to fpring next feafon. In the fame manner, 

 the fmall tree of the fecond year produces a bud which includes a tree 

 for tTie third year ; and this procefs uniformly goes on as long as the 

 tree continues to vegetate. At the extremity of each branch, buds 

 are likewife formed, which contain, in miniature, trees fimilar to 

 that of the firft year. From thefe, and fimilar fads, it is concluded, 

 that all thefe germs were contained in the original feed ; for the firft 

 bud was fucceeded by a fimilar bud, which was not unfolded till the 

 fecond year, and the third bud was not expanded till the third year ; 

 and, of courfe, the feed may be faid to have contained not only the 

 whole buds which would be formed in a hundred years, but all the 

 feeds, and all the individuals, which would fucceffively arrive till 

 the final deftrudtion of the fpecies. 



• Thefe fads are known and eftablifhed ; but the'reafoning deduced 

 from them is fallacious, or, what amounts to the fame thing, is per- 

 fedtly incomprehenfible. The feed is unqueftionably the origin or 

 caufe of all future individuals, which may be infinite. But the idea ^ 

 that it really contained the germs of all the individuals which were 

 to fpring from it as a fource, is not only abfurd, but exceeds all the 

 powers of human imagination to conceive. Theories of this kind, 

 of which there are too many in almoft every department of fcicnce, 

 hardly merit examination. Every feed, and every animal, according 

 to this dodrine, includes in its own body an infinite pofterity ! If 

 we affent to reafonings of this kind, we muft lofe ourfelves in the 



labyrinths 



