273 Mr. Townson’s Objections, &c. 
duétion, which can no more be confidered as the confequence of 
volition, than the fall of their leaves at ftated periods, their growth 
and decay, which have never been confidered as the confequence 
of mind, any more than the increafe or deftruétion of animal bodies, 
the efficient caufe of which may for ever remain unknown. 
When all is confidered, I think we fhall place this opinion 
amongft the many ingenious flights of the imagination, and foberly 
follow that blind impulfe which leads us naturally to give fenfa- 
tion and perceptivity to animal life, and to deny it to vegetables; 
and fo ftill fay with Ariftotle, and our great mafter Linnæus— 
Vegetabilia crefcunt © vivunt animalia crefcunt, vivunt, & fentiunt. 
XXV. An 
