There are fishes that have
wings, and are not strangers to the airy region: and there are some
birds that are inhabitants of the water, whose blood is cold as
fishes, and their flesh so like in taste that the scrupulous are
allowed them on fish-days. There are animals so near of kin both to
birds and beasts that they are in the middle between both:
amphibious animals link the terrestrial and aquatic together; seals
live at land and sea, and porpoises have the warm blood and entrails
of a hog; not to mention what is confidently reported of mermaids,
or sea-men. There are some brutes that seem to have as much
knowledge and reason as some that are called men: and the animal and
vegetable kingdoms are so nearly joined, that, if you will take the
lowest of one and the highest of the other, there will scarce be
perceived any great difference between them: and so on, till we come
to the lowest and the most inorganical parts of matter, we shall
find everywhere that the several species are linked together, and
differ but in almost insensible degrees. And when we consider the
infinite power and wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think that
it is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the
great design and infinite goodness of the Architect, that the
species of creatures should also, by gentle degrees, ascend upward
from us toward his infinite perfection, as we see they gradually
descend from us downwards: which if it be probable, we have reason
then to be persuaded that there are far more species of creatures
above us than there are beneath; we being, in degrees of perfection,
much more remote from the infinite being of GOD than we are from the
lowest state of being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing.
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