37§ OX THE LAWS OF NATURE, 



kingdoms of nature. It appears now as mineral, then 

 as plant, now as infect, as bird, as beaft, as man. 

 Buffbn and profefTor Fabre at Paris teach : that what wc 

 call element is capable of perpetual transformation, by 

 the inherent motions, attraction and expanlion of matter ; 

 and that every animal, every plant, may be confidered 

 q,s a fmall central point of heat or of fire, which ap- 

 propriates to itfelf the air and the water that furround 

 it, and affimilates itfelf to them, for vegetating, or 

 for nourifhing itfelf, and for living on the products of 

 the earth, which themfelves are nothing but previous 

 iixt air and water. It appropriates to itfelf at the fame 

 time a fmall quantity of earth, and as it receives the 

 impreffions of light and the heat of the fun, and like- 

 wife that of the earth, it changes each feveral element 

 in its fubftance, works, compounds, unites them, 

 places them, in certain ^ircurnftances, in oppolition 

 to each other, till they have entered the form that is 

 necefTary to its developement. 



An active fluid animates the world. This fluid is 

 no other than the aetherial matter, which by the move- 

 ment's of attraction and expanlion is modified in va« 

 rious ways. 



We difcover by the microfcope, fays a great ob^ 

 ferver of nature * f in the infulions of animal and vege^ 

 table fubftances, active, felf-rnoving particles. It is 

 credible, that thefe are nothing but the aetherial mat- 

 ter, which from a groffer fubftance is become Jfrxt to a 

 certain point. 



* M. Fabre, in his ingenious Eflai far les facultes de Tame. 

 Amfterd. and Paris, $78$. 



To 



