ON LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 295 



rapid growth, to bo again exposed, at a future stage, by the 

 opening out or unfolding of the enveloping structures. The 

 more profoundly we examine the development of the simplest 

 plant or animal, and still more so if we contemplate the pro- 

 cess in the more complex beings, do we become satisfied that 

 this process is peculiar to organisation. 



On the principle that all the conditions of a question 

 should be considered in attempting to solve it, we may ask 

 what is there remarkable in the constitution of one of the 

 higher animals, in addition to the mere chemico-physical 

 mechanism and teleological adaptations of its frame, and in 

 addition to the peculiarly organic peculiarities already enu- 

 merated ? — Assuredly its psychical manifestations. Without 

 entering at present into the question as to the difference 

 between the psychical constitution of the brute and the mind 

 of man, this much cannot well be denied, that there is in the 

 constitution of the brute an essence which is not material. 

 The evidence of the existence of a psychical essence in the 

 brute is necessarily indirect. We infer its presence, however, 

 with sufficient certainty, by comparing its psychical mani- 

 festations with the conclusions at which we arrive by the 

 exercise of our own peculiar self-consciousness ; and we are 

 supported in our inference by the concurrent intuitive opinion 

 of mankind in regard to it. 



This psychical essence varies in its endowments in dif- 

 ferent species of animals. It is specific for each species, 

 individual in each individual. It manifests itself less and less 

 distinctly, and is evidently more simple in its character the 

 lower it is in the scale of being. In plants, it is not mani- 

 fested in proper psychical acts. 



Here, however, it must lie recollected, that in the embryos 

 of tin; higher animals the so-called mind of the animal is 

 latent; and that in man, before birth, the entire psychical and 

 spiritual elements oJ his constitution are in the same condi- 



