[ ] 
marly owned to you, on other Occafions, myDiflruft 
of the Truth, or Certainty at lead:, of fome of thofe 
Principles, which I never yet had a fufficient Undcr- 
flanding of, to give a full and clear Affent to ; I fhall 
now make no Scruple of acknowledging, that I have 
already feen fo many ftrange things in Nature, that 
1 am become very diffident of all general Aflertions, 
and very cautious in affirming, what may, or may not 
poffibly be. 
The moft common Operations both of the Animal 
and Vegetable World are all in thcmfelves aftonifh- 
ing j and nothing but daily Experience, and conflant 
Obfervation, makes us fee, without Amazement, an 
Animal bring forth another of the fame Kind ; or a 
Tree blofi'om, and bear Leaves and Fruit. 
The fame Obfervation, and daily Experience, make 
it alfo familiar to us, that befides the ffift Way of 
propagating Vegetables from their refpedive Fruit and 
Seed, they are alfo propagated from Cuttings; and 
every one knows, that a Twig of a Willow particu- 
larly, cut off and only fluck into the Ground, does 
presently take Root and grow, and becomes as much 
a real and perfect Tree, as the original one from which 
it was firft taken. 
Here is then, in the Vegetable Kingdom, the very 
thing quite common, that Monfieur Reaumur's Me- 
moir is faid to give a rare Example of in the Animal. 
The belt Philofophers have long obferved very ftrong 
Analogies between thefe two ClafTes of Beings : and 
the Moderns, as they have penetrated further into 
Nature, have every Day found Reafon to extend 
that Analogy: fome have even with great Proba- 
