SECTION I. 



JL HE constitution of man has been divided into the 

 organic, animal, and intellectual departments. As these are 

 variously blended in the subject, giving rise to complex relations, 

 so thte precise definition of three parts, where the whole seems to 

 form but one, must be confessed to be in some degree arbitrary. 

 But as the division is indispensably ^convenient, though in some 

 respects imperfect; and as it is, to a great extent, conformable 

 with the division of which nature has on other occasions furnished 

 us the examples; we appear warranted in adopting it, provided 

 the detail does not assume, in consequence of the classification, a 

 distinctness which is not agreeable with truth. 



The title of " organic* life" includes all the phenomena of 

 living bodies, which are independent of sensation and voluntary 

 motion. The principal phenomena expressed by this term are 

 those of digestion, chylification, respiration, sanguification, cir- 

 culation, secretion, absorption, &c. 



The animal existence is one which is joined to the organic, 

 and has a relation with it. It is identified by the faculties of 

 sensation, by which it is liable to be affected by, and motion, by 

 which it is capable of affecting, the external world. 



The intellectual existence is joined with the organic and ani- 

 mal existences; it is identified by the faculties of remembrance, asso- 

 ciation, comparison, inference, &c. Perhaps these faculties are not 

 so distinct as they appear: it is possible to regard them all only as 

 modifications of the first ; of this we shall speak at a future time. 

 The degree in which these faculties are possessed seems to dis- 

 tinguish men from brutes; rather than the perfect possession of 

 them by the one, and the total absence of them in the other. 



My present design is in general to exhibit the state of evi- 

 dence upon the several topics. If this evidence furnishes a series 

 of satisfactory conclusions which agree with each other, and with 

 other things, the value of the evidence will not be diminished by 

 its being conjoined with the conclusions it supports, even though 

 these last may assume the form of a system, for which I give no 

 pledge : my only pledge is, to make out a few truths if I can. 



