shall here consider the
Fabrick and Texture of the Bodies of Animals in one particular View;
which, in my Opinion, shews the Hand of a thinking and all-wise Being in
their Formation, with the Evidence of a thousand Demonstrations. I think
we may lay this down as an incontested Principle, that Chance never acts
in a perpetual Uniformity and Consistence with it self. If one should
always fling the same number with ten thousand Dice, or see every Throw
just five times less, or five times more in Number than the Throw which
immediately preceded it, who would not imagine there is some invisible
Power which directs the Cast? This is the Proceeding which we find in
the Operations of Nature. Every kind of Animal is diversified by
different Magnitudes, each of which gives rise to a different Species.
Let a Man trace the Dog or Lion-Kind, and he will observe how many of
the Works of Nature are published, if I may use the Expression, in a
variety of Editions. If we look into the Reptile World, or into those
different Kinds of Animals that fill the Element of Water, we meet with
the same Repetitions among several Species, that differ very little from
one another, but in Size and Bulk. You find the same Creature that is
drawn at large, copied out in several Proportions, and ending in
Miniature. It would be tedious to produce Instances of this regular
Conduct in Providence, as it would be superfluous to those who are
versed in the natural History of Animals. The magnificent Harmony of the
Universe is such, that we may observe innumerable _Divisions_ running
upon the same _Ground_. I might also extend this Speculation to the dead
Parts of Nature, in which we may find Matter disposed into many
_similar_ Systems, as well in our Survey of Stars and Planets, as of
Stones, Vegetables, and other sublunary Parts of the Creation. In a
Word, Providence has shewn the Richness of its Goodness and Wisdom, not
only in the Production of many Original Species, but in the Multiplicity
of Descants which it has made on every Original Species in particular.

But to pursue this Thought still farther; Every living Creature,
considered in it self, has many very complicated Parts, that are exact
copies of some other Parts which it possesses, and which are complicated
in the same Manner. One _Eye_ would have been sufficient for the
Subsistence and Preservation of an Animal; but in order to better his
Condition, we see another placed with a Mathematical Exactn