OF SEA-ANEMONES. 9 



portion) — the distinctive character, I say, of 

 such bodies is rest; they cannot change, except 

 so far as other bodies may be joined to them 

 by influences over which they themselves have no 

 control. A stone continues a stone, a piece of 

 lead must ever be a piece of lead, although it 

 may increase — or groiv, as Linnaeus says — by the 

 addition of other portions of that substance, but 

 it, of itself, has nothing to do with such a pro- 

 ceeding. Now by this distinctive character we 

 recognise 



The Mineral Kingdom. 



But organic hoclies, on the other hand, possess life, 

 that is, motion dependant upon themselves ; thus, 

 trees and animals increase by the sap and the blood 

 which are circulated through themselves by means 

 of the organs which are given to them by their 

 Maker when the}' are formed. 



Hence we get our first great division of all 

 natural objects into 



Organic and Inorganic bodies. 



But a sea-anemone (I must presuppose for a short 

 time that the reader has some slight acquaintance 

 with the object) evidently increases by means which 

 he possesses in himself, and therefore is not a 

 mineral or an inorganic body: we will then leave 

 this division to take care of itself, and proceed to 



