200 Proposal for the Establishment of 



their distance, we say they are moved by mutual powers of 

 repulsion. 



8. Our experience of mutual attractions, of mutual re- 

 pulsions, or of impulse proceeding from both or from either, 

 does not discover any tendency or power, in all or either, 

 to produce or restore forms possessing distinct parts, in which 

 each part concurs to the continued subsistence of the other, 

 and of the whole. 



9. Forms known to have been constituted by the cohe^ 

 sion of others, before known to have been distinct, and 

 forms known to have been dissolved, and to have been again 

 restored, are never perceived to have mutual relations to the 

 permanent subsistence of each other. 



10. When the forms of animated beings are dissolved, 

 the particles are observed not to attract one another general- 

 ly : but several kinds of particles are distinguished by their 

 different attractions : they unite and compose different 

 forms, each bearing no relation to the permanent subsistence 

 of any other. 



11. The forms therefore of animated beings, and conse- 

 quently the relations observed in the distinct parts, do not 

 appear to proceed from attraction, repulsion, or from im- 

 pulse derived from these. 



12. The particles of inanimate forms, united by mutual 

 attraction, remain in the same circumstances unchanged for 

 ages ; but those of animated forms are subject to continual 

 chg^ige, and in a short time fall asunder. This tendency to 

 separate and dissolve soon follows the cessation or abstrac- 

 tion of life, thought, and voluntary power. 



13. When we consider the powers which conduce to any 

 mode of being, as attraction, &c., experience leads us to 

 conclude that the power which causes the continuance of. 

 an effect was the same, or is analogous to that which pro- 

 duced the effect. 



14. But different parts of the forms of animated beings 

 llear relation to the continued subsistence of each other, of 

 individuals and of species, subject to the exertions of 

 thought and voluntary power. 



15. Dif, 



