VIEW OF NATURE. 327 



the host of heaven, made the little moss and the lilies of the 

 field, which are so beautifully arrayed. If God condescends 

 to care for them, he will not neglect us who are made in his 

 own image, and destined to an immortal existence. 



Turning our thoughts from the heavenly host to our own 

 little globe, and considering the matter which exists upon it, 

 we find two great classes of substances : 1st, inorganized, and 

 2d, organized. 



The 1st class of substances, viz : such as are inorganized, 

 comprehends all matter destitute of a living principle ; such as 

 fluids, gases, and minerals. The particles which compose 

 them are entirely subject to chemical and mechanical laws. 



The 2d class, viz : organized substances, includes animals 

 and vegetables ; the particles constituting them are in a per- 

 petual state of motion. They are supported by air and food, 

 endowed with life, and subject to death ; the active power or 

 life which operates in them we call the vital principle. This 

 vital principle eludes the researches of man ; all that we know 

 of it is in its effects, enabling the organized body to resist pu- 

 trefaction, and, to a certain degree, to maintain a temperature 

 different from surrounding bodies. Deprived of this vital prin- 

 ciple, .both animals and vegetables become subject to chemical 

 decomposition ; their solid parts are dissolved, and they return 

 to the earth from whence they were taken. 



If you dig up a stone, and remove it from one place to 

 another, it will suffer no alteration ; if you dig a plant it will 

 wither and die. If you break a mineral to pieces, every 

 fragment will be a perfect specimen of its kind ; it will only 

 be altered in shape and size ; but if you tear off a branch 

 from a plant, or if a limb is taken from an animal, they will 

 both immediately begin to decay ; the vital principle being 

 extinguished, putrefaction and dissolution follow. 



We should never have been able to predict, from the ap- 

 pearances of the stone, the plant, and animal, that they were 

 thus differently constituted ; by observations we find, that the 

 production and mode of growth, has been under different 

 circumstances. We find that the stone has grown by a grad- 

 ual accumulation of particles, independent of each other, and 

 can only be destroyed by chemical or mechanical force ; the 

 plant and animal, have on the contrary, grown by nourish- 

 ment, been possessed of parts mutually dependent, and con- 

 tributing to the existence of each other. 



So far, our observation teaches us the distinction between 

 organized and inorganized beings; though it does not teach 



Substances divided into two classes 1st class of substances 2d class of 

 substances Vital principle Difference between a stone and a plant. 



