I would fain know, how an animal could subsist,
unless its parts were so adjusted? Do we not find, that it
immediately perishes whenever this adjustment ceases, and that
its matter corrupting tries some new form? It happens indeed,
that the parts of the world are so well adjusted, that some
regular form immediately lays claim to this corrupted matter: and
if it were not so, could the world subsist? Must it not dissolve
as well as the animal, and pass through new positions and
situations, till in great, but finite succession, it falls at
last into the present or some such order?
It is well, replied C/LEANTHES\, you told us, that this
hypothesis was suggested on a sudden, in the course of the
argument. Had you had leisure to examine it, you would soon have
perceived the insuperable objections to which it is exposed. No
form, you say, can subsist, unless it possess those powers and
organs requisite for its subsistence: some new order or economy
must be tried, and so on, without intermission; till at last some
order, which can support and maintain itself, is fallen upon. But
according to this hypothesis, whence arise the many conveniences
and advantages which men and all animals possess? Two eyes, two
ears, are not absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the
species. Human race might have been propagated and preserved,
without horses, dogs, cows, sheep, and those innumerable fruits
and products which serve to our satisfaction and enjoyment.
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