144 PHYSIOLOGY OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



getables ; it neither exists in bones, or iti 

 muscles ; in blood, or in the different vessels ; 

 in the organs, or in the fluids which they 

 secrete, to answer a living purpose. Neither does 

 dead matter exist in any part of the elementary, 

 or common matter, of which the universe is 

 composed : it does not exist in solid or liquid 

 matter ; not in earth, or in water ; in fire, or 

 in snow ; in air, or in light so long as these 

 bodies subsist in a common state ; neither are 

 these bodies susceptible of undergoing the 

 spontaneous decomposition which dead matter 

 suffers. 



It is by tracing the system of nature, from 

 animated beings, to such as are inanimate ; 

 from the agent, to the patient ; from the cause 

 to the infinity of its effects ; from things com- 

 posite, to things simple ; that we are enabled 

 ultimately to arrive, at the contemplation of 

 that primary elementary matter, of which the 

 whole of the universe is composed and filled. 



Mr. HARRIS, the learned author of Hermes, 

 very accurately defines this matter, to be 

 that elementary constituent in composite sub- 

 stances, which appertains, in common, to 

 them all, without distinguishing those com- 

 posite substances from one another ; for, al- 

 though the matter of which the ark, and the 

 ship the anvil and the saw, are formed, 

 may be, in kind, severally the same, and ap- 



