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Chapter X: Part 10

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Notwithstanding that these ideas appear to be perfectly clear to me, I do not expect to see them adopted. People in general reason only from their sensations, and natural philosophers determine from their prejudices; as, therefore, both these must be set aside, very few will remain to form a proper judgment; but such is the dignity of Truth, that she is content with a few admirers, and is always lost in a crowd; she is at all times august and majestic, notwithstanding which she is frequently obscured by fantastic opinions, and obliterated by fanciful chimeras. I, however, view and understand Nature in this manner, and am almost induced to believe that she is still more simple; the phenomena exhibited by brute matter is caused by a single force, and from this force, combined with that of heat, originate those living particles which gave rise to, and support all, the various effects of organized bodies.

FINNIS.

T. Gillet, Crown-court, Fleet-street.

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Transcriber Note

All obvious typographical errors were corrected. Where several variant spellings were used, the most prevalent version was use to standardize them. Although the printed version capitalized the first word in the major sections, they are presented as first letter only capital. On page 188, the odd fraction of 87 divided by 1 was left as printed. In addition to obvious typographical corrections, the following were made:

Page(s) Change
======== =================
134 "proxility" changed to "prolixity"
135-143 Best judgement used in the table where numbers not clearly
decipherable in the best images available
142 BISMUTH, with Antimony starts with 10004 all others start
with 10000. The "4" assumed typo changed to "10000".
143 Shows 10,0000. the last '0' assumed typo and removed.
167 Twice shows a fraction of "16/11 of gold". Although this may
be a typo for "10/11 of gold" it was left unchanged.
248 "aoules" changed to "aoutes"

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Buffon's Natural History. Volume 10 (of 10)Chapter X: Part 10

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