FINAL CAUSES. 29 



whole system: and. when once stopped, their renewal is im- 

 possible. Nature has thus assigned to every living being a 

 certain period as the utmost extent of its duration. Even 

 when exempt from external interference, all are doomed to 

 perish, sooner or later, by the slow but unerring operation 

 of the same internal causes which originally effected their 

 development and growth, and which are inseparably inter- 

 woven with the conditions of their existence. 



Numerous, however, are the extraneous and accidental 

 causes that may hasten or precipitate their destruction, long 

 before the period of natural decay. How striking is the 

 contrast, on those occasions, between the scene we have just 

 beheld of an animal in the full vigour of its powers, either 

 rapidly bounding across the plain, or gliding beneath the 

 wave, or soaring in the elevated regions of air, and the spec- 

 tacle 0^ the same animal lying, the next moment, extended 

 at our feet, bereft at once of activity and of sense — of all the 

 faculties and powers that constitute life. Can we contem- 

 plate without amazement so complete and instantaneous a 

 change; so sudden and awful a catastrophe? Must we not 

 be animated by an eager desire to penetrate so great a mys- 

 tery, and resolve the many questions which so striking a 

 phenomenon must naturally suggest? What, we are led to 

 ask, is the nature of this extraordinary revolution, extending 

 over the whole of that frame which had so long delighted 

 the eye by its beauty, and producing this sudden and irre- 

 trievable extinction of the powers of life? How comes it 

 that all those mighty energies which the animal had so 

 lately displayed, and which had called forth our admiration, 

 perhaps even excited our envy, are at once and for ever 

 annihilated? What was the bond, thus suddenly dissevered, 

 which held together the various parts of that compound 

 frame? What potent spell has been dissolved, which could 

 retain in combination for so long a period the multifarious 

 elements of that exquisite organization; and from the con- 

 trol of which being now released, these elements hasten to 

 resume their wonted attractions, and entering into new 



