ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 
39 
the lapse of infinite ages has brought into existence; that 
the present world is the relic of that variety; millions of 
other bodily forms and other species having perished, be¬ 
ing by the defect of their constitutions incapable of preser¬ 
vation, or of continuance by generation. Now there is no 
foundation whatever for this conjecture in anything which 
we observe in the works of nature; no such experiments 
are going on at present; no such energy operates, as that 
which is here supposed, and which should be constantly 
pushing into existence new varieties of beings: Nor are 
there any appearances to support an opinion, that every 
possible combination of vegetable or animal structure has 
formerly been tried. Multitudes of conformations, both of 
vegetables and animals, may be conceived capable of exist¬ 
ence and succession, which yet do not exist. Perhaps 
almost as many forms of plants might have been found in 
the fields, as figures of plants can be delineated upon paper. 
A countless variety of animals might have existed, which 
do not exist. Upon the supposition here stated, we should 
see unicorns and mermaids, sylphs and centaurs, the fan¬ 
cies of painters, and the fables of poets, realized by exam¬ 
ples. Or, if it be alleged that these may transgress the 
limits of possible life and propagation, we might, at least, 
have nations of human beings without nails upon their fin¬ 
gers, with more or fewer fingers and toes than ten; some 
with one eye, others with one ear, with one nostril, or with¬ 
out the sense of smelling at all. All these, and a thousand 
other imaginable varieties, might live and propagate. We 
may modify any one species many different ways, all con¬ 
sistent withlife, and with the actions necessary to preserva¬ 
tion, although affording different degrees of conveniency 
and enjoyment to the animal. And if we carry these mod¬ 
ifications through the different species which are known to 
subsist, their number would be incalculable. No reason 
can be given why, if these deperdits ever existed, they 
have now disappeared. Yet, if all possible existences have 
been tried, they must have formed part of the catalogue. 
But, moreover, the division of organized substances into 
animals and vegetables, and the distribution and sub-distri¬ 
bution of each into genera and species, which distribution 
is not an arbitrary act of the mind, but founded in the 
order which prevails in external nature, appear to me to 
conti adict the supposition of the present world being the 
remains of an indefinite variety of existences; of a variety 
which rejects all plan. The hypothesis teaches, that every 
