32 
OF THE SUCCESSION OF 
tion? Whether a latent plantule with the means of tem¬ 
porary nutrition, or whatever else it be, it encloses an or¬ 
ganization swited to the germination of a new plant. Has 
the plant which produced the seed anything more to do 
with that organization, than the watch would have had to 
do with the structure of the watch which was produced in 
the course of its mechanical movement ? I mean, Has it any¬ 
thing at all to do with the contrivance ? The maker and con¬ 
triver of one watch, when he inserted within it a mechanism 
suited to the production of another watch, was, in truth, 
the maker and contriver of that other watch. All the prop¬ 
erties of the new watch were to be referred to his agency: 
the design manifested in it, to his intention: the art, to him 
as the artist: the collocation of each part to his placing: 
the action, effect, and use, to his counsel, intelligence, and 
workmanship. In producing it by the intervention of a 
former watch, he was only working by one set of tools in¬ 
stead of another. So it is with the plant and the seed 
produced by it. Can any distinction be assigned between 
the two cases; between the producing watch, and the pro¬ 
ducing plant; both passive, unconscious substances; both, 
by the organization which was given to them, producing 
their like, without understanding or design; both, that is, 
instruments? 
II. From plants we may proceed to oviparous animals; 
from seeds to eggs. Now, I say, that the bird has the same 
concern in the formation of the egg which she lays, as the 
plant has in that of the seed which it drops; and no 
other, nor greater. The internal constitution of the egg 
is as much a secret to the hen, as if the hen were inan 
imate. Her will cannot alter it, or change a single feather 
of the chick. She can neither foresee nor determine oi 
which sex her brood shall be, or how many of either; yel 
the thing produced shall be, from the first, very different 
in its make, according to the sex which it bears. So far, 
therefore, from adapting the means, she is not beforehand 
apprized of the effect. If there be concealed within that 
smooth shell a provision and a preparation for the produc¬ 
tion and nourishment of a new animal, they are not of her 
providing or preparing: if there be contrivance, it is none 
of hers. Although, therefore, there be the difference of 
life and perceptivity between the animal and the plant, it is 
a difference which enters not into the account. It is a for¬ 
eign circumstance. It is a difference of properties not 
employed. The animal function and the vegetable func 
tion are alike destitute of any design which can operate upon 
