ON THE VITAL PJaXCIPLE. 7 



privation of life, the importance of which becomes 

 instantly evident when it is no more. I humbly con- 

 ceive therefore, that if the human understanding can 

 in anv case flatter itself with obtaining, in the natural 

 world, a glimpse of the immediate agencij of the Deity, 

 it is in the contemplation of this "vital principle^ wliich 

 seems independent of material organization, and an 

 impulse of his own divine energy. 



