386 VIEWS. Km, TTTE HHODIAN GENIUS. 



ILLUSTRATION AND NOTE. 



IN the Preface to the Second and Third Editions of th * 

 work (See preliminary pages of this translation) I havo 

 already noticed the republication of the preceding tale, which 

 was first printed in Schiller's Horen (for the year 1795, 

 part 5, pages 90 96). It embodies the development of a 

 physiological idea in a semi-mythical garb. In the year 

 1793, in the Latin Aphorisms from the Chemical Physiology 

 of Plants, appended to my Subterranean Flora, I had defined 

 the vital force as the unknown cause which prevents the 

 elements from following their original attractive forces. The 

 first of my aphorisms ran thus : 



"Rerum naturam si totam consideres, magnum atquc 

 durabile, quod inter elementa intercedit, discrimen perspicies, 

 quorum altera affinitatum lesribus obtemperantia, altera, vin- 

 culis solutis, varie juncta apparent. Quod quidem discrimen 

 in elementis ipsis eorumque indole ueutiquam positum, quum 

 ex sola distributione singulorum petendum esse videatur. 

 Materiam segnem, brutam, inanimam earn vocamus, cujus 

 stamina secundum leges chymicre afTmitatis mixta sunt. 

 Animata atque organica ea potissimurn corpora appellamus, 

 qua?, licet in novas mutari formas perpetuo tendant, vi inter na 

 quadam continentur, quominus priscam sibique insitam for- 

 mam relinquant. 



"Vim internam, quae chymicae affinitatis rincula resolvit, 

 atque obstat, quominus elementa corporum libere conjun- 

 gantur, vitalem vocamus. Itaque nullum certius mortis 

 criterium putredine datur, qua primal partes vei stamina 

 rerum, antiquis juribus revocatis, affinitatum legibus parent. 

 Corporum inanimorum nulla putredo esse potest."* 



* See Aphorismi ex doctrina Physiologic^ chemicce Plantarum, in 

 Humboldt, Flora Fribcrgensis subterranea,L792, pp.133 136. Trans- 

 lation ; " If you attentively consider the whole nature of things, you 

 will discover a great and permanent difference amongst elements, some 

 of which obeying the laws of affinity, others independent, appear in 

 various combinations. This difference is by no means inherent in the 

 elements themselves and in their nature, but seems to be derived solely 

 from their particular distribution. We call that matter inert, brute, and 



