ts inhabitants.

2. If we consider those parts of the material world which lie the
nearest to us, and are therefore subject to our observations and
inquiries, it is amazing to consider the infinity of animals with which
it is stocked. Every part of matter is peopled: every green leaf swarms
with inhabitants. There is scarce a single humour of the body of a man,
or of any other animal, in which our glasses do not discover myriads of
living creatures.

3. The surface of animals, is also covered with other animals, which are
in the same manner the basis of other animals that live upon it: nay, we
find in the most solid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells
and cavities, that are crowded with such imperceptible inhabitants, as
are too little for the naked eye to discover. On the other hand, if we
look into the more bulky parts of nature, we see the seas, lakes, and
rivers teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures; we find every
mountain and marsh, wilderness and wood plentifully stocked with birds
and beasts, and every part of matter affording proper necessaries and
conveniences for the livelihood of multitudes which, inhabit it.

4. The author of the _Plurality of Worlds_ draws a very good argument
from this consideration, for the _peopling_ of every planet: as indeed
it seems very probable, from the analogy of reason, that if no part of
matter, which we are acquainted with, lies waste and useless, those
great bodies; which are at such a distance from us, should not be desert
and unpeopled, but rather that they should be furnished with beings
adapted to their respective situations.

5. Existence is a blessing to those beings only which are endowed with
perception, and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any further
than it is subservient to beings which are conscious of their existence.
Accordingly we find, from the bodies which lie under our observation,
that matter is only made as the basis and support of animals, and that
there is no more of the one, than what is necessary for the existence of
the other.

6. Infinite goodness is of so communicative a nature, that it seems to
delight in the conferring of existence upon every degree of perceptive
being. As this is a speculation, which I have often pursued with great
pleasure to myself, I shall enlarge further upon it, by considering that
part of the scale of beings which comes within our knowledge.

7. There are some living creatures which