WHAT IS AN ANIMAL? 121 



whatever is hanging over the assertion) that the cow and 

 cucumber are not allied — no common parentage links them 

 together, even through remote relationship ; but to say 

 what is an animal, presupposes a knowledge of what is 

 essentially and exclusively animal ; and this knowledge 

 unhappily has never yet been reached. Much hot, and not 

 wise, discussion has occupied the hours of philosophers in 

 trying to map out the distinct confines of the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms, when all the while Nature knows of 

 no such demarcating lines. The Animal does not exist ; 

 nor does the Vegetable : both are abstractions, general 

 terms, such as Virtue, Goodness, Colour, used to designate 

 certain groups of particulars, but having only a mental 

 existence. Who has been fortunate enouch to see the 

 Animal ? We have seen cows, cats, jackasses, and camelo- 

 pards ; but the " rare monster " Animal is visible in no 

 menagerie. If you are tempted to call this metaphysical 

 trifling, I beg you to read the discussions published on the 

 vegetable or animal nature of Diatomacese, Volvocin^e, &c., 

 or to attend to what is said in any text-book on the dis- 

 tinctions between animals and vegetables, and you will then 

 see there is something more than metaphysics in the para- 

 dox. In the simjiler organisms there is no mark which can 

 absolutely distinguish the animal from the vegetable ; and 

 if in the higher organisms a greater amount of character- 

 istic diS'erences may be traced, so that we may, for purposes 

 of convenience, consider a certain group of indications 

 as entitling the object to be classed under the Animtd 

 division, we must never forget that such classification 



