Now, let us see how these three things
are so connected in their nature, as to form properly the contiguous
links of the same chain.
The primary and tertiary masses are bodies perfectly disconnected;
and, without a medium by which they might be approached, they would be
considered as things differing in all respects, consequently as having
their origins of as opposite a nature as are their appearances. But the
nature and formation of those bodies are not left in this obscurity;
for, the secondary masses, which are interposed, participate so
precisely of what is truly opposite and characteristic in the primary
and tertiary masses, that it requires nothing more than to see this
distinction of things in its true light, to be persuaded, that in those
three different things we may perceive a certain gradation, which
here takes place among the works of nature, and forms three steps
distinguishable by a naturalist, although in reality nothing but the
variable measure of similar operations.
We are now to assimilate the primary and tertiary masses, which are so
extremely different, by means of the secondary masses, which is the
mean.
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