Desires. 223 



certain method of action common to all classes of 

 powers, in all beings with which we are acquainted, 

 either as the sole condition of their life, or the first 

 condition of their intelligent action. The desires 

 are thought to belong to the mind, rather than to 

 the body; and this is undoubtedly true of some 

 of them, for they neither originate from any func- 

 tion of the body, nor have special reference to its 

 welfare. It is their method of action, which we 

 now consider, and not the plane or sphere of their 

 activity. But then we find a certain similarity of 

 action running through every plane of being. The 

 tree must feed, digest and assimilate, — so must the 

 body of man, — so must his mind, — so must his 

 moral nature. There is a wonderful similarity run- 

 ning through the whole, in the substratum of each 

 new plane ; though something new may be added, 

 as we go up from plane to plane. Man is made up 

 of layers, like the geologic strata. As we come up 

 through the formations of the earth, new forms of 

 life appear, higher and better than those before ; 

 but they are cast according to the same types that 

 we found below. There is unity of plan, though 

 no necessary connection of actual relationship, of 

 one form with the other. So man, in his unity, 

 like the globe, appears in stratas, — vegetative life, 

 animal life, intellectual life, moral life, — all proceed- 

 ing with so much similarity of action, that it is not 

 strange, these stages are considered by some, as 

 simply different degrees of development of the 

 lowest ; as man himself is regarded by some, as the 

 offspring of some lower animal. 



