ON THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 9 



putrefaction and destruction, immediately 

 follow the total privation of life, the import- 

 ance of which becomes instantly evident when 

 it is no more. I humbly conceive therefore, 

 that if the human understanding can, in any 

 case, flatter itself with obtaining, in the 

 natural world, a glimpse of the immediate 

 agency of the Deity, it is in the contempla- 

 tion of this vital principle > which seems inde- 

 pendent of material organization, and an 

 impulse of his own divine energy. 



