2SC) 



\vith by chance, ami admire accordingly; and give Nature credit for 

 it in all her works: to explain it further, spiritual assimilation and 

 material aggregation are thus supposed, both, transient acts. The 

 spirit in a sphere has an affinity with its similitude (elementary) in 

 the nutrient material; by this affinity its proper elements are sepa- 

 rated from their fluid medium; these elements, agreeing in 

 peculiarities with the spirit they are to renew, are allied with 

 organic particles; these are such as agree with the elements of the 

 life assimilated, and as life differs almost in every sphere, so a cor- 

 responding diversity of the structures prevails. The living spirit, 

 assimilates or separates spiritual elements; these allied by affinity 

 willi the organic particles; the elements of life no sooner assimilated 

 than they become informal, and the relation between life and the 

 particles allied with the elements ceases, the bond of their relation 

 having ceased. Hence particles in the living state, according to this 

 theory, are not fixed, but withdrawn from the fluid mass in which 

 they are contained, and the power that withdraws, then ceasing to 

 act upon, them, they mix again with the common material, being 

 displaced by new particles which are attached to the sphere of the 

 spirit, or else become the subjects of a new relation, as, with the 

 system of the absorbents. 



45. The truth of the above description of a minute and in- 

 scrutable process is indeed most questionable; it will be argued 

 against, and perhaps justly, thus: it will be urged in the first place 

 that such a perpetual succession of new particles in the spheres 

 occupied by the old ones is not demonstrable; nay, if a raw surface 

 be examined ever so attentively with the microscope, the same sub- 

 stance still appears to the eye, at least nothing like a loco-motion 

 of the minutest spherules of the structure is observable. This is 

 certainly a strong argument. It will be further urged, if the co- 

 hesion of the solid particles is dependent upon that precise quantum 

 of the living spirit by which they were aggregated, how comes it 

 that their cohesion endures days, weeks, and in some of the textures 

 months and years, after the living principle has been extinct] 



4G. These objections, if the argument were strenuously insis- 

 ted upon, would admit the following replies: to the first it would 

 be answered, the successive deposition and removal relate to in- 

 finitely divisible particles, and being thus minute they are not 

 objects of sensible cognizance, even with the aid of a microscope, 

 any more than those interstices or pores in glass through which 

 light passes, &c. To the second it would be answered, that when 

 life becomes extinct, the affinity of aggregation ceases, and the par- 

 ticles already laid down are left to obey the laws of matter, and ure 

 not superseded by other particles, which, from their affinity with the 

 sphere of the spirit, would tend to displace the old ones, and occupy 

 their place. 



47. But as I am not desirous of supporting a theory by 

 argument, where facts are wanting to give it the only sanction 

 which would entitle it to be received; so I shall be content to 



