474 BIOLOGY. 



2895. The ear receives the products of the three 

 vegetative organs of sense. It is a synthetic sense. 



2896. The tongue gives the vowels ; the jaws the 

 consonants. 



2897. In accordance with this the vowels are the body 

 of speech, and the consonants the limbs or members, 

 whereby it effects its movements. 



2898. Vowels express time, consonants space ; the 

 one the chemical import, the other the form. 



2899. The vowel E expresses the present, A that 

 which has just past, O that which has quite passed, U 

 that which has passed long ago, I the future. 



2900. The more consonants there are in the words, 

 so much the richer is the language ; the more vowels, 

 the poorer it is. Such is the speech of savages or wild 

 men. 



2901. The speech of animals is a vocal or vowel- 

 speech. 



5. Function of the Optic Sense. 



2902. As the primary motion of the world is mani- 

 fested to the animal through the ear ; so does the primi- 



^ $ tive cause of the motion, that of every activity and every 

 phenomenon, i. e. light, appear unto the nerve-sense. 



2903. The light-sense is similarly formed or modelled 

 according to the light of nature, and kindles also the 

 light within itself, just as the light originated in the aether ; 

 viz. through primary antagonism taking place in its own 

 substance. 



2904. Light is the binary division of the aether-mass, not 

 an antagonism between it and some other matter ; in 

 like manner sight is a binary division of the nerve-mass 

 in itself, without antagonism to other organs. 



2905. Sight is the tension of the aether directly con- 

 tinued into the animal aether, just as taste was a chemical 

 action continued into the animal chemisin, and smell an 

 electrical process continued into the animal electrism. 



2906. In sight the nervous mass is completely self- 

 antagonized, is a phenomenon unto itself; the eye is the 

 brain placed opposite to the brain. 



