GENERAL VIEW OF NATURE. 235 



eomprehends all matter destitute of a living principle ; as 

 fixdcls^ 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 perj^etual 

 state of motion ; they are supported by air and food, endowed 

 with life, and subject to death ; the active. power of life which 

 operates in them we call ih^mtal pinnciple. This vital princi- 

 ple eludes the researches of man ; all that we know of it is in 

 its effects, enabling the organized body to resist putreftiction, 

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

 from surrounding bodies. Deprived of this vital principle, both 

 animals and vegetables become subject to chemical decomposi- 

 tion ; their solid parts are dissolved, and they return to the 

 earth from whence they were taken. 



371. If we dig u]^ a stone and remove it from one place to 

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

 wither and die. If we break a mineral to pieces, every frag- 

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

 altered in shape and size : but if we tear off" a branch from a 

 plant, or if a limb be taken from an animal, the portion thus 

 separated will decay ; the vital principle being extinguished, 

 putrefaction and dissolution follow. We should never have 

 been able to predict, from the appearance of the stone., the plant. 

 and animal, that they %cere thus differently constituted j by ob- 

 servations, we find- that the productions and mode of growth 

 have been attended with different circumstances. We find 

 that the stone has grown hy a gradual accumulation of particles 

 independent of each other, and can only he destroyed hy chemi- 

 cal or mechanical force ; the plant and animal have, on the 

 contrary, grown hy nou7'ishment, he en possessed of parts mutu- 

 ally dependent, and contrihuting to the existence of each other. 



372. So far, our observation teaches us the distinction between 

 organized and inorganized beings ; though it does not teach us 

 in what the internal power of life consists. God permits us to 

 know much, in order to lead us to industry in the attainment 

 of knowledge ; but he places boundaries beyond which we may 

 not pass, that we may be humble. 



COMPARISON OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC BODIES. 



INORGANIC BODIES. ORGANIC BODIES. 



Structure. 



Their parts always analogous to, and not dc- Their parts are mutually dependent: thus 



pending- on each other : thus a fragment of stone stem, leaf, flower, &c. do not constitute a vcgeta- 



is as much a stone as the block or rock to which it ble being, except as they are nnitei/ ; it is the same 



belonged. with the dillerent parts of an animal. 



Second class of substances— Vital principle. — 371. Difference between a stone and a plant. — 372. 

 Structnre of inorganic bodies— Of organic bodies. 



