CHLOROSPERMEjE. 187 



from plants by their voluntary motions only, here are cases 

 which seem to show that the distinction is one of degree and 

 not of kind. And pursuing such a train of thought, I can 

 hardly call it a thread of reason, we are led to question the 

 absolute distinctions between the two great kingdoms of na- 

 ture, whether a plant and an animal be not really fellow-mem- 

 bers of a single fraternity, and not, as commonly supposed, 

 members of distinct organic creations. But in so question- 

 ing the absoluteness of the distinctions between animal and 

 vegetable life, we overlook not merely the crowd of other cir- 

 cumstances connected with animal and vegetable existence 

 which would bear to the other side of the argument, while we 

 fix our attention strongly on a few isolated facts that appear 

 to make out our point : we not only do this, but we shut 

 our eyes to another fact with which no naturalist who has 

 entered at all into questions of affinity can be unfamiliar, 

 namely, that in no case do we see any group in nature in 

 that state of entirety, unconnexion, or nudity, which will 

 enable us to fix its limits with mathematical precision. Are 

 we therefore to doubt that there are limits, because we can- 

 not readily see them ? Or that absolute differences do not 

 exist because they pass our acuteness to make plain ? I can 

 hardly think this ; and therefore is it that all the arguments 

 brought forward in favour of the unity of animal and vegeta- 

 ble life appear to my (perhaps prejudiced) mind illusory ; 

 and instead of making me more satisfied that the connexion 

 has been proved, remind me merely of those 



" False views, like that horizon's fair deceit, 

 When earth and heaven hut seem, alas, to meet !" 



The question is too wide to discuss at large in the present 

 place, nor is it of much practical importance, however inte- 

 resting it may be in a speculative point of view. For all 

 practical purposes vegetable and animal life are as opposite 

 as the poles of a magnet. They are like two opposite and 

 equal forces in juxta-position : there are innumerable points 

 between the two centres of force in which one or other force 

 preponderates in a greater or less degree : there is also one 

 point at which neither force preponderates ; a middle point, 

 a point of equilibrium or rest. Applying this illustration to 

 to the animal and vegetable kingdom, such a middle point 

 would be a point of death or annihilation a chasm, however 

 narrow, separating conterminous countries, at one side of 

 which animal life is manifested, but in its lowest conceivable 



