This theory, I own, replied C/LEANTHES\, has never before
occurred to me, though a pretty natural one; and I cannot
readily, upon so short an examination and reflection, deliver any
opinion with regard to it. You are very scrupulous, indeed, said
P/HILO\: were I to examine any system of yours, I should not have
acted with half that caution and reserve, in starting objections
and difficulties to it. However, if any thing occur to you, you
will oblige us by proposing it.
Why then, replied C/LEANTHES\, it seems to me, that, though
the world does, in many circumstances, resemble an animal body;
yet is the analogy also defective in many circumstances the most
material: no organs of sense; no seat of thought or reason; no
one precise origin of motion and action. In short, it seems to
bear a stronger resemblance to a vegetable than to an animal, and
your inference would be so far inconclusive in favour of the soul
of the world.
But, in the next place, your theory seems to imply the
eternity of the world; and that is a principle, which, I think,
can be refuted by the strongest reasons and probabilities. I
shall suggest an argument to this purpose, which, I believe, has
not been insisted on by any writer. Those, who reason from the
late origin of arts and sciences, though their inference wants
not force, may perhaps be refuted by considerations derived from
the nature of human society, which is in continual revolution,
between ignorance and knowledge, liberty and slavery, riches and
poverty; so that it is impossible for us, from our limited
experience, to foretell with assurance what events may or may not
be expected.
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