36 THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 



ticiilar parts of the body, and conveyed to that 

 organ by the medhim of filaments, composed of 

 a similar substance, and termed nerves. In this 

 way, then, it has been provided that a communi- 

 cation shall be established between the sentient 

 principle and the external objects, by which its 

 activity is to be excited, and on which it is to be 

 dependent for the elements of all its affections, 

 both of sensation and of intellect. A con- 

 siderable portion of this treatise will be occupied 

 with the develoj)ement of the series of means 

 by which impressions from external objects are 

 made on the appropriate organs that are pro- 

 vided to receive and collect them, so as not only 

 to give rise to varied sensations, but also to 

 convey a knowledge of the existence and dif- 

 ferent qualities of the objects that produce them. 

 This latter faculty is termed Perccplion. 



But in the formation of animals it was not the 

 intention of Providence to endow them with 

 the mere capacity of being affected by sur- 

 rounding objects, and of deriving from them 

 various sensations of pleasure and of pain, 

 without granting them the power of controlling 

 these effects, and of acting on those objects in 

 return. The faculties of sensation and percep- 

 tion, in beings destined to be merely passive, 

 and the sport of every contingent agency, would 

 have been not merely useless, but even baneful 

 endowments. The same beneficent power which 



