300 CONCLUSION. 



mind depend upon organization, that the mind itself indeed 

 consists in organization, are supposed to find a greater dif- 

 ficuhy than others do, in admitting a transition by death to 

 a new state of sentient existence, because the old organiza- 

 tion is apparently dissolved. But I do not see that any im- 

 practicability need be apprehended even by these : or that 

 the change, even upon their hypothesis, is far removed 

 from the analogy of some other operations, which we know 

 with certainty that the Deity is carrying on. In the ordi- 

 nary derivation of plants and animals from one another, a 

 particle, in many cases, minuter than all assignable, all con- 

 ceivable dimension : an aura, an effluvium, an infinitesimal ; 

 determines the organization of a future body : does no less 

 than fix whether that which is about to be produced, shall 

 be a vegetable, a merely sentient, or a rational being ; an 

 oak, a frog, or a philosopher ; makes all these differences ; 

 gives to the future body its qualities, and nature, and spe- 

 cies. And this particle, from which springs, and by which 

 is determined a whole future nature, itself proceeds from, 

 and owes its constitution to, a prior body : nevertheless, 

 which is seen in plants most decisively, the incepted organ- 

 ization, though formed within, and through, and by a pre- 

 ceding organization, is not corrupted by its corruption, or 

 destroyed by its dissolution, but, on the contrary, is some- 

 times extricated and developed by those very causes ; sur- 

 vives and comes into action, when the purpose, for which 

 it was prepared, requires its use. Now an economy which 

 nature has adopted, when the purpose was to transfer an 

 organization from one individual to another, may have some- 

 thing analogous to it, when the purpose is to transii^it an 

 organization from one state of being to another state : and 

 they who found thought in organization, may see something 

 in this analogy applicable to their difficulties ; for whatev- 

 er can transmit a similarity of organization, will answer 

 their purpose, because, according even to their own theory, it 

 may be the vehicle of consciousness, and because conscious- 

 ness carries identity and individuality along with it through 

 all changes of form or of visible qualities. In the most 

 general case, that, as we have said, of the derivation of 

 plants and animals from one another, the latent organiza- 

 tion is either itself similar to the old organization, or 

 has the power of communicating to new matter the old 

 organic form. But it is not restricted to this rule. There 

 are other cases, especially in the progress of insect life, in 



