BH301 1823 THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES OF NATURE. BOOK VII. CHAPTER I. As there are in nature many contrasts, there are, also, many resemblances, though there are no likenesses. Some of these resemblances constitute the best media, by which the several portions of nature may be associated, or contrasted, with each other. The sciences become simplified by this method. Since illustrations of excursion, if the term may be allowed, impart beauty to strength; colour to form; variety to monotony; and render more evident Nature's unison of systematic accordance. The perfume of the citron may be imparted to less favoured fruits, by infusing its essence into the sap of their roots. Plants claim some affinity with animals. The stalk of the former resembles the body of the latter; the root the stomach; the bark the skin; the pith the marrow; and the juice the blood. Like animals, too, plants are subject to a great variety of disorders. They imbibe air and moisture by their leaves; and food by their roots;-both being transubstantiated into their own substance: as theirs is afterwards employed in the structure of animals. For the entire frame of animated being derives its form and its consistence from vegetable organizations. Some writers confound sensation with the power of motion and if no motion is perceived, they cannot imagine the existence of sensation. Oysters have no more the locomotive power than thistles; and they can no more forsake the beds, in which they are deposited by the tide, than fishes can swim without water, or birds and insects fly without air. Vegetable sensation, however, is not animal sensation; and it is no superficial mode of supporting this argument to observe, that, as Nature has given compensations to all, she would never have ordained so cruel a result as animal sensation to plants, without giving in return the power of defence. A few plants, it is true, seem to be endued with this faculty: some by the noxiousness of their qualities; and others by the peculiarity of their structures: as the nettle, the thistle, the noli me tangere, the thorn, the rose, the holly, the kamadu of Japan, with the deadly nightshade, and other poisonous plants. Yet these plants, armed as some of them are against attacks, and as others are against animal use, support innumerable insects. Some plants open their petals to receive rain: others |