86 NATURAL HISTORY. 



nections with external objects, we will not hesitate to 

 pronounce inanimated matter to be infinitely more so. 

 Besides, as our sensations have not the most distant 

 resemblance to the causes that produce them, analogy 

 obliges us to conclude that dead matter is neither en- 

 dowed with sentiment, sensation, nor even with a con- 

 sciousness of its OAvn existence. 



With inanimated matter, therefore, we have no other 

 relations than what arise from the general properties 

 of bodies, extension, impenetrability, gravity, &c. But 

 as relations purely material make no impression 

 on us, and as they exist entirely independent of us, 

 they cannot be considered as any part of our being. 

 Our existence, therefore, is an effect of organization, 

 of life, of the soul. Matter, in this view, is not a prin- 

 cipal but an accessary. It is a foreign covering, unit- 

 ed to us in a manner unknown. But in order to give 

 a more perfect idea of the nature of man, let us trace 

 him through the different stages of his existence. 



At its birth, the infant is exposed to a new element, 

 the air. What the sensations are on the admission of 

 this element into the lungs, it is impossible to conjec- 

 ture ; but, from the cries of the infant, we have reason 

 to believe that it is attended with pain. The eyes of 

 an infant are indeed open, but they are dull, and ap- 

 pear to be unfitted for the performance of any office 

 whatever; and the outward coat of them is wrinkled. 

 The same reasoning will apply to most of the other ' 

 senses. It w not till after forty days that it begins to 

 smile ; nor is it till then that it begins to weep. Its 

 former sensations of pain are unaccompanied with tears. 

 The size of an infant born at the full time, is twenty- 

 one inches, though some do not exceed fourteen ; and 

 it generally weighs twelve,' and sometimes fourteen 



