WHAT ARE ANIMALS AND PLANTS ? 



rriHIS question: 'What are animals and plants?* is a 

 -■- large question. In order to be able to reply to it, we 

 must know both (1) what animals and plants are, as con- 

 trasted with substances which are neither the one nor the 

 other ; and (2) how animals and plants stand towards each 

 other — their relations and their differences. Only by learning 

 these two thmgs can we possibly know what animals and 

 plants are. 



The common-sense, however, of the^overwhelming majority 

 of men will make short work of the first question ; they will 

 say : ' Animals and plants are living things, while all other 

 visible substances are but composed of dead matten Now, 

 we have no quarrel with common-sense, we fully accept its 

 dictates ; but the patient and admirable researches of genera- 

 tions of men of science, and the speculations of modern 

 philosophers, have made known so many curious phenomena, 

 and have brought forward so many objections, that it is no 

 longer possible for him who would be able to give an account 

 of the belief that is in him concerning the world and its 

 inhabitants, to rest satisfied with such a rough-and-ready 

 reply. 



Similarly, with regard to the second question — the rela- 

 tions between animals and plants — most men would, perhaps, 

 reply that ' animals are living creatures, which move about, 

 and get their Hving by the help of their senses, while plants 



