Author: PARSONS (James):
Title: Philosophical Observations on the Analogy between the Propagation of Animals and that of Vegetables: In which are answered Some Objections against the Indivisibility of the Soul, which have been inadvertently drawn from the late curious and useful Experiments upon the Polypus and other Animals. With An Explanation of the Manner in which each Piece of a divided Polypus becomes another perfect Animal of the same Species.
Description: London: Printed for C. Davis..., 1752. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xvi, 276 [277 - 288 Index], folding engraved plate, contemporary sheepskin, rebacked, red morocco label; fold on plate repaired, gathering "L" slightly sprung, binding a little worn, with corners rubbed. Parsons (1705 - 1770) is well-known for his medical treatises as well as his book on European languages, Remains of Japhet (1767). Here he argues for a uniformity of structure and reproduction between animals and vegetables. He also asserts that "Man...[is] the most perfect and noble of the whole Creation...." Perhaps the most interesting part of the above work is his sixth chapter, wherein he considers the happiness of man, his future state, and the derivation of moral law, which Parsons attributes to human consciousness of pain and pleasure as well as the "animating Principle in Man" which is "separable from the Organization in which it dwells." Infants and idiots may not have reason and sense, but they have the same "animating Principle": "I am inclined to think, that both Infants and Idiots have [Reason and Sense] in the same Perfection with the most brilliant Philosophers, Poets, or Orators in the World; however defective and incapable their Organizations may be." Cole Library 1513. Gascoigne 14482.

Keywords: biology philosophy prose


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