INVESTIGATING ORGANIC FORMS. 207 



stituted. But the natural philosopher, admitting all this, 

 arrived at his conclusion by another path altogether; and, 

 after he had reached it, ascertained that a final cause was at 

 work here also. 



It was interesting to inquire why, in physical and che- 

 mical science, the progress had been so slow, by the appli- 

 cation of final causes, whereas anatomy had made great 

 progress by that means ? though after all, they were only at 

 the threshold. It was difficult to say why. It probably 

 had connection with the difference betwixt organised and 

 inorganised bodies. Every plant or animal formed a system 

 in which every part was related to some common centre, and 

 the whole . completely organised. In the study of any given 

 organised body, we had the whole of it before us. We 

 take into consideration its physical conditions, temperature, 

 medium, etc., yet each individual organism forms a system ; 

 we may refer all its parts, configuration, and phenomena, to a 

 principle residing in no other but individuals of the same 

 species. We are thus enabled to take the whole system into 

 consideration ; to enter upon its examination as a whole, and to 

 consider the relations of any part to any other given part ; we 

 thus see the reason why all its parts are adapted to each other. 



It is different with regard to inorganised bodies, such as 

 the sun, whose parts, although constituted with reference to 

 the wellbeing of parts of our own system, have yet reference 

 to others. There is some common principle which governs 

 all these ; and this must be ascertained before we can reason 

 on the forms or uses of the parts of inorganic nature, and see 

 how all these parts are related. If it were possible to get 

 the whole system of the universe under the eye for examina- 

 tion with our telescopes and microscopes, we should then 

 have the inorganic world before us in the same position as 

 the animal or vegetable world, and should then see the 

 reason for its adaptations. 



