On the Vitality of Matter. 57 
nice aE are visible to our unassisted fale oe the 
opete nn A piece of sugar rises and falls 4 
water, Phabbles agitate the mass with motions si ap- 
pear to be inherent, but these phenomena are not suspected 
of bearing any relation to life. The motions of the eye stone 
ina plate of vinegar have been attributed to animal life, but 
as it is a calcareous stone, the motions are obviously re- 
ferable to the action of the acid upon it, which disengaging 
a gas, impels it mechanically from side to si u 
neree disengaged or acquired at the precise point of ~ 
when those macerated materials were under Spon 
ry 0g moving impulse upon them, aided b ara 
tion of the water, and the minuteness of the norte might 
roduce a resemblance to life, although by no meansa demon- 
stration that they possess vitality. Further proof is unattain- 
able, as the subject eludes further inspection. 
We are therefore warranted in doubting the correctness 
oh the inference, that the motions discovered by the micro- 
cope were attributable to animal life: and we are justified 
in in believing that the senses were deluded by appearances re- 
ing life which were not life; inasmuch as the circum- 
iden under which they were detected, render the evidence 
senses imp $ as conclusions drawn from 
the — are unsupported by analogy throughout the visi- 
e cre 
But 1 no rieaee rested upon the fidelity or capacity of the 
human senses in this inquiry, and if it were —— that man 
with rs excellent perfections, and the oak wi duration 
andeur, are composed of the identical meee which 
form tlie ignoble reptile, and the poisonous weed; yet we 
are assailed at this point of the inquiry with the 
_IL’d question, Whether life exists in brute matter ? 
If animation were inherent in matter, and the presence of 
water were to awaken the principle, why should it leave the 
monads as soon as it is withdrawn? and why do they not 
révive on its reapplication? Mr. Edwards expressly states 
that “they never recover the faculty of locomotion, 
the water, after evaporation, is immediately r La ae is 
a contradiction to say, that life is inherent in matter, when, 
by changing its cireumstances, it becomes deprived of it, and 
cannot regain it. What is that but - in its common 
Vor. X Nb. i 
