153 



CHAP. V. 



General Relations of Vital, Chymical, and Mechanical Agenciet. 



1. THE relation of the spirit with the chymical sub- 

 stances has been hitherto described as one of affinity. That it is 

 not one of constitution, or that the organic chyraicals are not made 

 by union with spiritual properties in the way of constitution, is 

 proved, 1st, by the fact that the spirit preserves its own identity, and 

 is not lost in combination; and, 2nd, because the structures, &c. re- 

 main, when the identity of the spirit has ceased ; which would not 

 be the case, if this precise identity were an essential Constituent. 



2. The chymical alliance with the spirit begins in the ovum : 

 this substance is selected by the properties of the spirit which reside 

 in it, and but for the influence of the properties by which it was 

 formed it would not be maintained. Hence, a form of life, which is 

 only a predisposition to that which exhibits the living phenomena, 

 is capable of maintaining the coherence of organic particles; and it 

 is this property which establishes its character as a form of life. 



3. The chymicals with which the spirit was from the beginning 

 allied, or rather the repetitions of similitudes, perpetuating the rela^ 

 tion, concur as long as life lasts to preserve the liviog principle, by 

 assimilation, &c. 



4. The relation of the spirit with the mechanical department 

 in all the processes of formation and growth is mediate, that is, the 

 alliance of the spirit is with substances composed of certain chymi- 

 cal properties; these properties form the material substances/ and 

 as the relation of the spirit is with these precise propertied, so those 

 precise substances which they compose are the result of its agency. 

 The proof of this is the necessity of precise chymical materials which 

 would not exist if the spirit were directly related with properties 

 common to all matter. 



5. Foreign chymical properties influence the spirit both 

 directly and indirectly* This, however, is rather inferred as proba- 

 ble modes of its influence than proved by any example, because we 

 have not the means of discriminating the instances, supposing there 

 to be many of both kinds. It is therefore inferred, as the spirit is 

 related with the agents of cbymistry, that it might become affected 

 v 



