version is less definite: "C'est absolument comme si l'on pretendoit que l'architecture peut se mêler de fabriquer des instruments de musique."
CHAPTER IV.
Note 1, p. 38. It is equally absurd to think, &c.]
This is an unanswerable objection to Empedocles and his
followers who made all bodies to be combinations, in
differing proportions, of the elements—for whether the
Vital Principle be harmony or a combination of particles,
there must, as combinations are various, (since that which
forms bone is not that which forms flesh,) be several prin-
ciples in each member of the body; and if it be not pro-
portion, there must then be a second Vital Principle to
maintain that relation. The succeeding passages are,
necessarily, from the absence of precise knowledge con-
cerning atomic proportion and relation, obscure; but they
point to opinions which, although not based on experi-
mental science, anticipate, when closely looked into, much
that is now admitted.
Note 2, p. 40. Now, to maintain that Vital Principle,
&c.] The argument reverts to the question whether the
Vital Principle can be subjected to motion casually pro-
duced—be subject, that is, to motion through the body
which is moved by it, and thus partake of locomotion; but
