ANIMAL LIFE IN GENERAL. 265 



II. ANIMAL LIFE. 



If we notice the animal before us, we ob- 

 serve that it has the power to break its im- 

 mediate connection with the Earth, though 

 it soon resumes that connection. It can cut 

 loose from gravity in a moment of effort, but 

 always comes back again. The dog lifts his 

 foot, yet can put it down on another spot; 

 bringing his act in relation to the physical 

 universe, we may say that he has a limited 

 control over the Earth's attraction, he can 

 degravitate even if he soon re-gravitates. 

 The animal body is thus able to separate from 

 the terrestrial body, its elemental source, and 

 to renew its spatial relation thereto; it can 

 replace itself in space. 



Herein the Animal is different from the 

 Plant, and this we may deem their primal 

 difference. The Plant is fixed in its fated 

 spot of Earth, the Animal has relatively spa- 

 tial freedom. Gravitation is the unitary prin- 

 ciple of the total Cosmos; but the Animal can 

 break from it for a moment, and defy it a lit- 

 tle. This is his primitive separation, in which 

 he asserts his earliest individuality even 

 against the primal cosmical law. The Plant 

 cannot perform any such act of separation; 

 it remains practically unseparated from its 



