AND ANIMAL LIFE. 367 



pensable relation to the faculties of the mind, to 

 the sensibility of the frame, or the senses with 

 which an individual is endowed, we have vege- 

 tation, on the one hand, presenting occasionally 

 the exuberance of life, and, on the other, we 

 have animals almost completely destitute of the 

 above conditions ; even man himself exhibits 

 different degrees of perfection in the instruments 

 by which he acquires his knowledge and elevates 

 his natural pre-eminence. We have every ap- 

 pearance of life, where we have neither voluntary 

 motion, sensibility, intellect, nor any of the five 

 senses, and yet we observe that these striking 

 characteristics of life, and the different organic 

 functions, bear a direct ratio to the development 

 and perfection of those organs on which these 

 endowments depend. From such facts, we may 

 infer that life is extended or contracted accord- 

 ing to the number or magnitude of the various 

 organs of the system ; and, still further, that it 

 possesses its degrees in the same individual at 

 different periods of existence, or in different 

 states of the constitution. The youth, buoyant 

 with high spirits, ambitious from the vigour of 

 his mind, and restless from the energy of his 

 animal and organic functions, must be allowed 

 to possess a greater share of the principle of life 

 than the aged and emaciated being, almost para- 

 lysed by debility, imbecile in mind, from his im- 



