WHAT IS AN Aiv^MAL? 127 



rock, Avhile the free end is surmounted by numerous 

 tentacula arranged in several rows, which, when ex- 

 panded, give the animal the appearance of a flower/' 

 Assuming, then, that you know the general aspect of 

 the Actinia, you may follow my description of the 

 animal's bearing and habits. 



Hoiu do I know that it is an animal, and not a 

 flower, which it so much resembles ? No one yet has 

 been able to distinguish, in the face of severe critical 

 precision, between the animal and plant-organisation, 

 so as to be able authoritatively to say, " This is exclu- 

 sively animal/' To distinguish a cow from a cucum- 

 ber requires, indeed, no profound inauguration into 

 biological mysteries ; we can " venture fearlessly to 

 assert'' (with that utterly uncalled-for temerity exhi- 

 bited by bad writers in cases when no peril whatever is 

 hanging over the assertion) that the cow and cucumber 

 are not allied — no common parentage links them to- 

 gether, even through remote relationship ; but to say 

 what is an animal, presupposes a knowledge of what 

 is essentially and exclusively animal ; and this know- 

 ledge unhappily has never yet been reached. Much 

 hot, and not wise, discussion has occupied the hours of 

 philosophers in trying to map out the distinct confines 

 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, when all the 

 while Nature knows of no such demarcating lines. 

 The Animal does not exist ; nor does the Vegetable : 

 both words are abstractions, general terms, such as 

 Virtue, Goodness, Colour, used to designate certain 

 groups of particulars, but having only a mental exist- 



