P/LATO\ too, so far
as he is intelligible, seems to have adopted some such notion in
his T/IMAEUS\.
The B/RAHMINS\ assert, that the world arose from an infinite
spider, who spun this whole complicated mass from his bowels, and
annihilates afterwards the whole or any part of it, by absorbing
it again, and resolving it into his own essence. Here is a
species of cosmogony, which appears to us ridiculous; because a
spider is a little contemptible animal, whose operations we are
never likely to take for a model of the whole universe. But still
here is a new species of analogy, even in our globe. And were
there a planet wholly inhabited by spiders, (which is very
possible,) this inference would there appear as natural and
irrefragable as that which in our planet ascribes the origin of
all things to design and intelligence, as explained by
C/LEANTHES\. Why an orderly system may not be spun from the belly
as well as from the brain, it will be difficult for him to give a
satisfactory reason.
I must confess, P/HILO\, replied C/LEANTHES\, that of all
men living, the task which you have undertaken, of raising doubts
and objections, suits you best, and seems, in a manner, natural
and unavoidable to you. So great is your fertility of invention,
that I am not ashamed to acknowledge myself unable, on a sudden,
to solve regularly such out-of-the-way difficulties as you
incessantly start upon me: though I clearly see, in general,
their fallacy and error.
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