IMIYSIOLOOY. 467 



and crystallization ; in the last the relation of the elec- 

 tricity ; in the water that of the chemism. The sense of 

 feeling is an earth-sense, that of taste a salt-sense, that of 

 smell a resin-sense. 



b. Functions of the Animal Senses. 



2846. The objects of the animal senses are no longer 

 matter, nor its chemical qualities, but the higher rela- 

 tions of the solar system, and the highest organizations, 

 the animals themselves. Throughout the supra-planetary 

 solar system there is naught to be conceived but motion 

 and light in action. Wherever there is aether, it is in 

 motion ; the corresponding organs of sense must there- 

 fore perceive these two relations. Now, since the animal 

 is also motion and light, and this alone, so by means of 

 these senses will the innermost of animality be at once 

 perceived. Animals become acquainted with themselves 

 only through these senses, and by them only enter, in so 

 far as they are animals, into communication with each 

 other. In so far as they are mere masses of matter, they 

 are capable of self-perception through other senses. 

 These senses may therefore also be called cosmical, while 

 the three former are terrestrial. 



2847. They correspond thus with each other. The 

 tactile sense is a precursor of the sense of motion, and 

 represents the motion, gravity, and pressure, after a terres- 

 trial manner ; the two splanchnic senses are the precursors 

 of the light-sense, since they dwell upon the qualities of 

 the matter, while the light also is only a quality of the aether. 

 The sense of smell, being as it were an air-sense, will 

 in particular border most closely upon the light-sense. 



2848. Through the two cosmic senses the universe is 

 translated into the animal, like the planet is through the 

 terrestrial senses ; through the former also the animal 

 spirit, which is a transcript of the universal spirit, passes 

 over into other animals. They are the senses of the 

 highest instruction, of freedom. 



