SENSATION. 327 



work that was to be performed. On tlie organized 

 fabric there has been conferred a vital force ; with 

 the powers of mechanism have been conjoined 

 those of chemistry ; and to these have been super- 

 added the still more subtle and potent agencies of 

 caloric and of electricity : every resource has been 

 employed, every refinement practised, every com- 

 bination exhausted that could ensure the stability, 

 and prolong the duration of the system, amidst 

 the multifarious causes which continually menace 

 it with destruction. It has been supplied with 

 ample means of repairing the accidents to which 

 it is ordinarily exposed ; it has been protected 

 from the injurious influence of the surrounding 

 elements, and fitted to resist for a lengthened 

 period the inroads of disease, and the progress of 

 decay. 



But can this, which is mere physical existence, 

 be the sole end of life ? Is there no further purpose 

 to be answered by structures so exquisitely con- 

 trived, and so bountifully provided with the means 

 of maintaining an active existence, than the mere 

 accumulation and cohesion of inert materials, dif- 

 fering from the stones of the earth only in the more 

 artificial arrangement of their particles, and the 

 more varied configuration of their textiu'e ? Is the 

 growth of an animal to be ranked in the same class 

 of phenomena as the concretion of a pebble, or the 

 crystallization of a salt? Must we not ever asso- 

 ciate the power of feeling with the idea of animal 

 life? Can we divest ourselves of the persuasion 

 that the movements of animals, directed, like our 

 own, to obvious ends, proceed from voluntary acts, 

 and imply the operation of an intellect, not wholly 



