CHAPTER L 



UNIVERSAL LIFE, OPIXIOX5 OF PHILOSOPHERS 

 AXD POETS. 



i. Primitire beliefe; the ideas of poets. | 2. Opinions of 

 from brute to Grieg bodies Hoe 



by summation Ideas of philosopher as to sensibility and 

 in brate bodies The general principle of 



i. PRIMITIVE BELIEFS. IDEAS OF THE POETS. 



The teaching of science as to the analogies between 

 brute bodies and living bodies accords with the con- 

 ceptions of the philosophers and the fancies of the 

 poets. The ancients held that all bodies in nature 

 were the constituent parts of a universal organism, 

 the macrocosm, which they compared to the human 

 microcosm. They attributed to it a principle of 

 action, the psyche, analogous to the vital principle, 

 and this psyche directed phenomena; and also an 

 intelligent principle, the MOHS, analogous to the soul, 

 and the turns served for the comprehension of pheno- 

 mena. This universal life and this universal soul 

 played an important part in their metaphysical 

 systems. 



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