ON THE POLITY OF NATURE. 49 



in, at the time of the absorption by animals or plants. We 

 know, that upon being absorbed, they enter into combina- 

 tions depending on the living principle ; but where is the 

 proof, that animals can form new combinations only from 

 those bodies already in living union ? The Cheese Mite 

 and the Blue Mould, are both supported by the same food ; 

 and the observation applies to many dung-beetles and mush- 

 rooms. How many plants and animals appear to subsist 

 on water only ? 



In the course of the preceding observations, we have at- 

 tempted to mark the characters by which plants and ani- 

 mals may be distinguished from each other. Instead of 

 giving a definition of these organized beings, in order to 

 draw the line of separation, we have preferred a description 

 in detail. Many of the definitions which have been given, 

 do not embrace all the species of the two classes, but serve 

 to characterize the largest and most perfect merely. They 

 indicate a limited acquaintance with the extensive range 

 of living beings. Such are the definitions of THEOPHRAS- 



TUS, JlJNGIUS, TOURNEFORT, PoNTEDERA, LuDWTG, BoER- 



HAAVE, LINN^US and MIRBEL ; which do not surpass in 

 point of clearness or acuteness, the discriminations of ARIS- 

 TOTLE : From this last naturalist nearly all of them appear 

 to have derived their origin. 



CHAP. IV, 



ON THE POLITY OF NATURE. 



HAVING, in the preceding chapter, taken a general view 

 of the constitution of those great classes into which the crea- 

 tures of this Globe may be divided, we come now to trace 

 the relation in which these classes stand to one another ; or 

 to examine what has been termed the Polity of Nature, 

 VOL. i. i> 



