found to be upon this planet? What peculiar privilege has this little
agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it
the model of the whole universe? Our partiality in our own favour does
indeed present it on all occasions; but sound philosophy ought carefully
to guard against so natural an illusion.

So far from admitting, continued PHILO, that the operations of a part can
afford us any just conclusion concerning the origin of the whole, I will
not allow any one part to form a rule for another part, if the latter be
very remote from the former. Is there any reasonable ground to conclude,
that the inhabitants of other planets possess thought, intelligence,
reason, or any thing similar to these faculties in men? When nature has
so extremely diversified her manner of operation in this small globe, can
we imagine that she incessantly copies herself throughout so immense a
universe? And if thought, as we may well suppose, be confined merely to
this narrow corner, and has even there so limited a sphere of action,
with what propriety can we assign it for the original cause of all
things? The narrow views of a peasant, who makes his domestic economy the
rule for the government of kingdoms, is in comparison a pardonable
sophism.

But were we ever so much assured, that a thought and reason, resembling
the human, were to be found throughout the whole universe, and were its
activity elsewhere vastly greater and more commanding than it appears in
this globe; yet I cannot see, why the operations of a world constituted,
arranged, adjusted, can with any propriety be extended to a world which
is in its embryo state, and is advancing towards that constitution and
arrangement. By observation, we know somewhat of the economy, action, and
nourishment of a finished animal; but we must transfer with great caution
that observation to the growth of a foetus in the womb, and still more to