330 Dr. Mantell’s Lecture on Zoophytes. 
interests in which we all find ourselves continually involved ; in short, 
by directing our attention to the investigation of natural phenomena, 
we may realize the beautiful fiction of our immortal Shakspeare, and 
Tongues in trees—books in 1 the runn a a. 
Sermons in stones—and good in every thing. 
The beautiful world around us is every where sa of objects present- 
ing innumerable varieties of form and structure, of action and posi- 
tion; some of them being inanimate or inorganic, and others pos- 
sessing organization and vitality. The organic kingdom of nature 
in like manner was separated into two grand divisions, the animal 
and the vegetable. ‘The differences between organic and inorganic 
bodies were very numerous and manifest ; but in this brief discourse 
he need only mention a few obvious and familiar characters. All - 
the parts of an inorganic body enjoyed an independent existence: 
if he broke off a crystal from the mass before him, the specimen 
did not lose any of its properties—it was still a mass of crystal 
as before ; but if he removed a branch from a tree, or a limb from 
an- dnicvial, both the one and the other were imperfect, and the 
parts removed underwent decomposition; the plant withered, the 
animal matter underwent putrefaction. Again, if crystals, which 
may be considered the most perfect models of inorganic substan- 
ces, were formed, these crystals will continue of the same size and 
figure, unless acted upon by some external force of a chemical or 
mechanical nature: nor has the crystal any power of increasing oF 
diminishing its bulk but by addition or subtraction externally. In 
organic bodies the characters are totally different: they acquire 
definite forms and structure which are capable of resisting for a time 
the ordinary Jaws that affect inorganic matter, and internally they 
are in constant change ; from the moment of the first existence of a 
plant or animal, to the period of its dissolution, there is no repose; 
youth follows infancy, maturity precedes age. It is thus with the 
moss and the oak, the mite and the elephant, life and death are com- 
mon to them all. The lecturer went on to describe the principles 
of vitality which existed in animals and vegetables, and by which 
their systems of vessels were enabled to attract and select nutriment, 
and maintain their existence till the period when the vital principle 
quitted the frame it had animated. Thus the body became subject 
to the laws which affect inorganic matter, the bough hangs down, 
and the slender stem bends towards the earth, the animal falls to the 
