256 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



the principle of intelligence by which they are actu- 

 ated. 



II. The Principle of Life. Life in all its forms is a 

 mystery. As a formative power, it builds up the 

 infantile body from weakness into maturity and 

 strength. It maintains a perpetual conflict with the 

 elements of disorder and decay until the organism in 

 which it dwells breaks up, or wears itself out. Is 

 death the destruction of this principle? or is it imma- 

 terial, and expelled, like the spirit, from the body? 

 If it be a principle, and, therefore, immaterial, it 

 would be difficult to show that the living and think- 

 ing principles are separate and distinct entities. It 

 seems to be more than surmisable that the two are 

 identical. It is I — the spirit — which lives, and not 

 the body, which is material. If life comes of the 

 union of body and spirit, then it is not an entity, but 

 a result; and all there is of life is the life of the spir- 

 itual essence, or of the principle of intelligence. 



Vegetable life cannot be compared with animal, be- 

 cause the former, to omit other differences, is without 

 self-consciousness. Will it be said that the mutes are 

 without consciousness? It is answered that conscious- 

 ness is an inseparable and essential quality of the 

 mental principle. When a beaver stands for a mo- 

 ment and looks upon his work, evidently to see whe- 

 ther it is right, and whether anything else is needed, 

 he shows himself capable of holding his thoughts be- 

 fore his beaver mind; in other words, he is conscious 

 of his own mental processes. 



The possession of the principle of life by the higher 

 animals, from its most robust to its most sensitive forms, 

 draws after it whatever this principle may represent. 



