THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 49 



preceding, I conceive they will be best understood 

 after the general mechanism of the frame has been 

 explained. These studies will prepare us for the 

 consideration of living animals as sentient and 

 active beings, endowed by their bounteous Creator 

 with the exalted faculties of perception and of voli- 

 tion, which alone give value to existence, and which 

 raise them so far above the level of the vegetable 

 world. I shall lastly give a very brief account of 

 the reproductive functions, and of the phenomena 

 of animal developement, in which the discoveries 

 of modern times have revealed to us so considerable 

 a portion of those extensive plans which an all-wise 

 Providence has beneficently devised for the general 

 welfare of animated beings. 



VOL. I. 



