On the Natwal Disiribution of animated Nature. 201 



Assuming the existence of two primasval principles, one 

 sentient — the other not, viz. 



Mind and Matter, 



the place of whose existence is sj)ace, and the period of it 

 time; whose continuity constitutes 6'/'<?;-«zVj/; the writer ventures 

 to conclude, that a Binary Distribution of natural objects was 

 at least the primaeval one *, however altered or modified by 

 causes and effects of subsequent occurrence, and themselves 

 amenable to ulterior variations. And it is very remarkable 

 that most, or all, of Nature's superior divisio?is, are actually, 

 or virtually, either duplications, or multiples, of the numeral 

 Two. 



Nor is it until we arrive amongst the groups which consti- 

 tute as it were the interiors of the vegetable and animal king- 

 doms, in ascending the great scale of creation, that 5 ap- 

 pears clearly a very frequent, if not an universal number, 

 circularly disposable, and as it were returnable into itself, 

 according to the elaborate theory of MacLeay in his learned 

 Horce Entomologies recently published. 



Of the two supernal divisions, the first, that is. Mind or 

 Spirit, is an unit and absolutely indivisible, although creation 

 is replete with it ; for it actually occupies, in endless variation, 

 every animated form; "ubique varians, semper tamen eadem." 

 But the other supernal division. Matter, separates into no 

 less than three modifications, viz. 



1 . Unorganized, 



2. Ciystallized, 



3. Oigariized. 

 And the latter divides into 



Animal and Vegetable. 

 And all these, if thus placed. 



Unorganized, 

 Organized, 

 Crystallized, 

 would form what may be called the^?s^ circle of Nature re- 

 turning into itself, and from whence emanate, in endless order, 

 all things that exist : 



" Mens agitat molem, magnoque se corpore miscet." 



* It has occurred to us that the poet Ausonius (Eidyll. xi.) hints at a 

 ternary arrangement, commencing in a manner somewhat similar : 

 " In Physicis/Wrt prima, Deus, mundus, data fouma. 

 Tergenus omnigcnum,genitor, genitrix, generatum." 

 But some, perhaps, will think that those who begin so high, and classify 

 abstractions and qualities, should say, not " in p/ii/sicis,'' but " in mctaphy- 



sicis." Edit. 



Vol. 62. No. 30.5. Sept. 1 823. C c Yet, 



