282 Mr. Burnett on the Adumbrations 



successive grades, a change, which, subordinate when first 

 perceived, subsequently becomes of paramount importance. 

 Every function, or system of functions, upon the due perform- 

 ance of which vitality depends, will equally attest this fact, and 

 with equal truth ; for whether we examine the nutritive or the 

 reproductive apparatus, the digestive or the respiratory systems, 

 the organs of sense and motion, or the phenomena of irritabi- 

 lity and instinct, each will witness, as each will furnish the 

 examples^ that the progressive rise of organic beings, whether 

 animals or plants, consists rather in the separation and perfec- 

 tion of the respective functions, and the organs which they seve- 

 rally possess, than in many distinct endowments allotted to 

 their various grades — rather in the perfecting those principles 

 at first laid down, principles common to all, and by the enjoy- 

 ment of which all subsist, than in any new 4 mode of being 

 peculiar to different kinds. The modifications of these general 

 principles are numerous and vast ; still the same plan is evi- 

 dent, the same rule governs, the same principle prevails; and as 

 in one so in all, the selfsame dogmas uniformly guide, and every 

 where direct the whole. Thus the humble moss and fungus, the 

 lowly conferva, the most simple protophytes, differ not so much 

 from the giant oak, the lordly palm, or the irritable mimosa, 

 in what they do, as in the manner their essential duties are per- 

 formed : similar ends are achieved by each, though diverse 

 instruments are frequently employed. They are each endowed 

 with organs of nutrition, by which they support themselves; 

 they are each possessed of organs of reproduction, by which 

 they perpetuate their kind ; but in the one the absorbents per- 

 vade the whole structure, or overspread the entire surface, so 

 that every part is equally and indistinguishably root : and again, 

 if torn into many pieces all the parts will grow, for all alike are 

 germinating points, each having the essential powers present in 

 every part ; while in the other series the nutritive system is more 

 or less separated from the reproductive, the one exhibiting a 

 proper root, the other a complex flower and seed. This sepa- 

 rability of function, and distinction of structure, for the more 

 or less perfect evolution of the various organs, and concen- 

 trating the power and energy of each, is a subject well worthy 

 consideration : the grades are not less curious in animals than 



