148 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



stated by the following fanciful allusion. When 

 thus fixed he considers these beings as no longer 

 having any animal life, but as preserving the 

 appearance of it, " Like those men of Plato," 

 adds he, " agitated by eternal regret with which 

 the remembrance of a happy life, the sweets 

 of which they formerly tasted, inspires them ; 

 always oscillating, never tranquil, they seem 

 aiming at the recovery of that happy life which 

 they have lost." The locomotions, however, of 

 the germes of these Hydrophytes, and their 

 oscillatory movements when fixed, indicate at 

 least a semblance of animality, and an approach 

 to the confines of the animal kingdom. 



Leaving, therefore, these doubtful forms, as 

 having no just claim to be considered as ani- 

 mals, I shall now proceed to those whose right 

 to that title is generally acknowledged. And 

 here two very different tribes start up and prefer 

 their claim to be first considered ; the Infusories, 

 namely, and those which have been called 

 Polypes and Zoophytes. But since the first of 

 these two classes, by means of one of its tribes, as 

 its great oracle, Ehrenberg, remarks, approaches 

 the oscillating plants, I shall consider it as the 

 basis on which the Deity has built the animal 

 kingdom. Indeed, though the Polypes at first 

 sight appear most to resemble the higher plants, 

 in their general configuration, the Infusories, as 

 well as coming nearer to the lowest by some of 



