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test, in a matter of inference, there can be no higher proof of 

 causation, as will hereafter be shewn. 



12. This principle, which we do not see, I call inclusively the 

 organic spirit; thus distinguishing it from the chymical and 

 material alliances; and for this purpose only, and having expressed 

 how much is meant by the term, there can be no objection to the 

 use of it, provided the distinction it implies be agreeable to truth, 

 which I have begun by endeavouring to prove. 



13. In our view of the principles of causation, it was shewn 

 that there is nothing strictly elementary.* We are therefore taught 

 to expect the agency of properties in phenomena, where we are not 

 even acquainted with -their effects; that is, we are taught to infer a 

 series of causes which has no end: bodies, compounded of proper- 

 ties, related with the senses; these latter, of others, not related with 

 the senses; and to a great extent we can trace, satisfactorily, as in 

 the present instance, these relations between a visible and an in- 

 visible world. Without however examining here what we are to 

 think of the extent of these relations, it shall suffice to have re- 

 marked that of the spiritual alliance with the animal textures to be 

 in mere conformity with the principles before laid down. Before 

 connecting then the formation of the textures with the agents by 

 which it is said they are formed, it will be proper to inquire a little 

 concerning the origin of the cause itself, which appears to have a 

 natural precedence. 



14. We distinguish, among others, two modes of the produc- 

 tion of an apparently new form; one, by perceptible constitution, 

 where the components are brought together and combined, as in the 

 example of the union of an acid and an alkali, and the formation of 

 a neutral salt ; and the other, as where a form previously consti- 

 tuted detaches from itself a portion of its own identity, giving rise 

 to a distinct being: the former mode may be called the origin by 

 constitution, the latter an origin by derivation. 



15. If we examine how the spirit of a man came to be, we 

 must recur to the first mode, and pursue the history of its forma- 

 tion and growth : if we inquire how it is perpetuated, we shall find 

 strong traces of the latter, and at the same time shall not altogether 

 overlook the former; in other words, we shall find these modes to 

 be mixed in this business, and the examination alluded to belongs 

 to our present subject. 



16. The organic spirit is formed like gross substances, viz. by 

 its constituents; if it be asked what these constituents are? it must 

 be replied, 



17. The properties by which it is identified, and without 

 which it cannot exist. 



18. The organic spirit exists in various forms: in some in- 

 stances, as in the lowest tribe of animals and vegetables, it displays 

 but little more than a single property, or else a combination of pro- 

 perties subserving to one similar end ; that is, it does little more than 



Chapter II. 



