26 ON THE VITAL PRINCIPLE. 



(though each fluid individually is perpetually removed 

 and renewed) for bix^y, eighty, or a hundied years, or 

 more, while life remains. So do the infinitely small 

 vessels of an almost invisible insect, the fine and pellu- 

 cid tubes of a plant, all hold their destined fluids, con- 

 veying or changing them according to fixed laws, but 

 never permitting them to run into confusion, so long as 

 the vital principle animates their vaiious forms. But 

 no sooner does death happen, than, without any alteration 

 of structure, any apparent change in their material con- 

 figuration, all is reversed. The eye loses its form and 

 brightness ; its membranes let go their contents, which 

 mix in confusion, and thenceforth yield to the laws of 

 chemistry alone. Just so it happens, sooner or later, to 

 the other parts of the animal as well as vegetable frame. 

 Chemical changes, putrefiiction and destruction, imme- 

 diately follow the total privation of life, the importance 

 of which becomes instantly evident when it is no more. 

 I humbly conceive therefore, that if the human under- 

 standing 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 contemplation of this vital principle^ 

 which seems independent of material organization, and 

 an impulse of his own divine energy. 



