"Shall we then say that the vegetable living filament was originally different from that of each tribe of animals above described? And that the productive living filament of each of those tribes was different from the other? Or as the earth and ocean were probably peopled with vegetable productions long before the existence of animals; and many families of these animals, long before other families of them, shall we conjecture _that one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life_?[182] . . . . . . "The late Mr. David Hume in his posthumous works places the powers of generation much above those of our boasted reason, and adds, that reason can only make a machine, as a clock or a ship, but the power of generation makes the maker of the machine; and probably from having observed that the greatest part of the earth has been formed out of organic recrements, as the immense beds of limestone, chalk, marble, from the shells of fish; and the extensive provinces of clay, sandstone, ironstone, coals, from decomposed vegetables; all of which have been first produced by generation, or by the secretion of organic life; he concludes that the world itself might have been generated rather than created; that it might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fire. What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of the great Architect! The Cause of causes! Parent of parents! Ens entium!"[183] FOOTNOTES: [169] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 484. [170] Ibid. p. 485. [171] Ibid. p. 493. [172] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 494. [173] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 497. [174] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 498. [175] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 500. [176] Ibid. p. 501. [177] Ibid. p. 502. [178] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 503. [179] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 505. [180] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 507. [181] 'Voyage to China,' p. 113. [182] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 511. [183] 'Zoonomia,' vol. i. p. 513. CHAPTER XV. MEMOIR OF LAMARCK.