30 FINAL CAUSES. 



forms of combination, are scattered into dust, or dissipated 

 in air, leaving no trace of their former union? What me- 

 chanism has been employed in its construction? What re- 

 fined chemistry has been exerted in assimilating new parti- 

 cles of matter to those previously organized, and in appro- 

 priating them to the nourishment of the parts with which 

 they become identified? By what transcendent power, 

 above all, did this assemblage of material particles first be- 

 come animated by the breath of life; and from what elevated 

 source did they derive those higher energies, apparently so 

 foreign to their inherent properties, and investing these once 

 lifeless and inert materials with the exalted attributes of ac- 

 tivity, of sensation, of perception, of intelligence? Shall 

 we ever comprehend the nature of this subtle and pervading 

 principle, by the agency of which all these wonderful phe- 

 nomena of life are produced, and which, combining into one 

 harmonious system so many heterogeneous and jarring ele- 

 ments, has led to the formation of this exquisite frame, this 

 elaborate machine, this miraculous assemblage of faculties? 



The discovery of a clew, if any such can be found, to the 

 mazes of this perplexing labyrinth can be hoped for only from 

 the successful cultivation of the science of physiology. But 

 before engaging in this arduous study, we ought previously 

 to inquire into the methods of reasoning by which it is to be 

 conducted. 



The object of physiology is, by the diligent examination 

 of the phenomena of life, to ascertain the laws which re- 

 gulate those phenomena, both as they apply to the indivi- 

 dual beings endowed with life, and also as they relate to the 

 various assemblages that constitute the species, the genera, 

 the families, the orders, and the classes of those beings: and, 

 lastly, as they concern the whole collective union of the 

 organized world. 



These peculiar laws, which it is the province of physio- 

 logy to investigate, are, as I have before observed, of two 

 kinds, each founded upon relations of a different class. The 

 first, which depend upon the simple relation of cause an'd ef- 



