APPETITK, OR INCIPIENT MIND. 31 



oat ? Their instinctive appetite, of course. "What then is the 

 natural appetite? Merely the atomic law of liko attracting 

 like, the same law which draws similar materials to minerals 

 ami vegetables, to assist in their formation. The matter of the 

 animal, having an affinity for material like that it is formed of, 

 is drawn towards it, and feeds on it. The animal then is, as it 

 were, merely a living magnet, and its appetite or mind, merely 

 a property of the substance of which it is composed ; as magnet- 

 ism is a property of the iron magnet. 



Incipient mind, or appetite, and life, are thus alike manifested 

 as properties of matter, in different conditions only. 



Let us now see how this same law of appetite governs all 

 animals, from Mr. Crosse's insect up to man ; and not only 

 animals, but vegetables too. 



All kinds of vegetation will not grow on the one soil, 

 for each plant has an appetite, and this can only be supplied by 

 a situation which contains materials similar to itself. If planted 

 in a different soil it dies. The same law holds with animals. 

 "We have seen seals transferred from the clear, cold, salt water of 

 the North Atlantic Ocean, where they had abundance of fresh 

 fish for food, and placed in a pond of muddy fresh water, in 

 the belief that they would enjoy life in company with frogs, 

 "eels, and muskrats. They died of course. 



When a calf is born, it is immediately attracted to the cow 

 for a supply of food, because its natural appetite tells it, its 

 mother can furnish suitable material ; and shortly afterwards 

 it proceeds to nibble the grass, and to drink water. The 

 material of the calf s body being produced from grass, saturated 

 with water, it has an attraction to a similar vegetable product 

 growing in the field, and to water, and thus it partakes of both. 



