FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 139 



WISDOM that planned, and the POWER that exe- 

 cuted the wondrous whole ; so that each in its 

 place and station, by employing the faculties 

 and organs, with which he has gifted it, in 

 accomplishing his will, praises, though uncon- 

 sciously, its Almighty and Beneficent Creator, 

 thus loudly calling upon man, the rational head 

 of the creation, to take up the strain and lead 

 the general choir. 



Before I descend to particulars, I must say a 

 few words upon the general functions of the 

 animal kingdom. These, like Janus, have a 

 double aspect; on one side they affect the 

 vegetable world, and on the other their own 

 body. 



There is a singular contrast and contrariety 

 between the majority of animals and vegetables. 

 The head of the animal and the root or base of 

 the vegetable perform the same office, that of 

 collecting and absorbing the nutriment of each. 

 The animal derives this nutriment from organic 

 matter, the vegetable from inorganic. The plant 

 gives oxygen to the heaven, and falling leaves 

 and other matters to the earth. The animal 

 gives nitrogen to the former, and the rejecta- 

 menta of its food to the latter. The most beau- 

 tiful and admired, and odorous and elevated 

 parts of the plant are its reproductive organs 

 and their appendages, while in the animal they 

 are the very reverse of this. 



