Illustrations of Nature, 395 



consequently no absolute demarcation can exist ; for, a^ the 

 material ascends through the organic to the spiritual, so does 

 the vital through the sensual to the rational creation. The 

 lowest organic grade is that which only lives; the medial, 

 that which lives, and feels ; the superior, that which lives, and 

 feels, and reasons ; i. e., the vital, the sensual, and the rational 

 natures ; or the vegetable, the animal, and the human reigns. 

 The rational is sensual and vital ; the sensual is also vital, but 

 the vital has nothing which it doth not possess in common, or 

 which is not included in the constitution of the other two. 



As organic beings, in two of their grades, have systemati- 

 cally been divided from each other as widely as from the 

 inorganic world, e. g.^ the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral 

 kingdoms ; and two of their grades, viz.^ the rational or human, 

 and the sensual or mere animal, have been as generally confused 

 together, it becomes imperative that we more than cursorily 

 insist upon the dogma, that man endowed with reason rises as 

 much above, and is hy that, his characteristic quality, as fairly 

 distinguished from the dog, the horse, the elephant, or the 

 monkey, as the lower tribes of animals, the polypes, &c., are 

 from the tremellae, and azotic plants; and many animals 

 show less obvious signs of sense and instinct than do the 

 mimosa, dionaea, hedysarum, &c., which are avowedly subjects 

 of the vegetable reign. It may seem that we are here pander- 

 ing to the pride of man, by placing him in a class and reign 

 different from that of animals. Let it not, however, be sup- 

 posed that man is not an animal ; yet he is no more an animal 

 than an animal is a vegetable ; a vegetable is an organic being, 

 endowed with the faculty of vegetation, i. e., of vital assimila- 

 tion, but destitute of sense ; an animal is an organic being 

 possessed of the powers of vital assimilation, and in so far a 

 vegetable, but an animal is a vegetable endued with sense ; 

 a man is a vegetable in so far as growth and other vegetative 

 phenomena prevail, an animal as regards his instincts, and a 

 MAN as respects his reason. 



Having faintly traced an outline of the circumstances by 

 which the several grades of organic life become associated, 

 and by which they are distinguished from the material and 

 intellectual reigns on either side immediately contingent, and 



