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demarcation that cannot be mistaken, let us endeavour to exalt ourselves 

 to the conception of Life ; and for accuracy of thought, let us, in some sort, 

 analyse it, by studying it in all the beings of nature that are endowed with 

 it. In this study, of which I may be allowed to state, in advance, the re- 

 sults, we shall see life composed at first of a small number of phenomena, 

 simple as the apparatus to which it i given in charge; but soon extend- 

 ing itself as its organs or instruments are multiplied, and as the whole or- 

 ganic machine becomes more complex; the properties which character- 

 ize it and bear witness of its presence, at first obscure, becoming more 

 and more manifest, increasing in number as in developement and energy ; 

 the field of existence enlarging, as from the lower beings we re-ascend to 

 man, who, of all, is the most perfect; and observe, that by this term of 

 perfection, it is simply meant that the living beings to which we apply 

 it, possessed of more means, present also more numerous results and 

 multiply the acts of their existence; for in this wonderful order of the 

 universe, every being is perfect in itself, each being is constructed most 

 favourably for the purpose it is to fulfil; and all is equally admirable, in 

 living and animated nature, from the lowest vegetation to the sublimity 

 of thought. 



What does this plant present to us' that springs up, and grows, and 

 dies every year ? A being whose existence is limited to the phenomena of 

 nutrition and reproduction ; a machine constructed of a multitude of ves- 

 sels, straight or winding, capillary tubes, through which the sap is filtra- 

 ted and other juices necessary to vegetation ; these vegetable liquors as- 

 cend, generally, from the roots, where their materials are taken in, to the 

 summit, where what remains from nutrition is evaporated by the leaves, 

 and what the plant could not assimilate to itself is thrown off in transuda- 

 tion. Two properties direct the action of this small number of functions: 

 a latent and faint sensibility, in virtue of which, each vessel, every part 

 of the plant, is affected in its own way by the fluids with which it is in 

 contact; a contractility as little apparent, though the results prove irre- 

 fragably its existence; a contractility, in virtue of which, the vessels, 

 sensible to the impression of liquids, close or dilate themselves, to effect 

 their transmission and elaboration. The organs allotted to reproduction, 

 animate, for a moment, this exhibition : more sensible, more irritable, 

 they are visibly in action; the stamina, or male organs, bow themselves, 

 over the female organ, the pistils, shake on the stigma their fertilizing 

 dust, then straighten, retire from it, and die with the flower, which is 

 succeeded by the seed or fruit. 



This plant, divided into many parts, which are set in the earth with 

 suitable precautions, is reproduced and multiplied by slips, which proves 

 that these parts are little enough dependent on each other; that each of 

 them contains the set of organs necessary to life, and can exist alone. 

 The different parts of a plant can live separately, because life, its simpler 

 organs and properties are diffused more equably, more uniformly, than in 

 animals like man, and its phenomena are connected in a less strict and 

 absolute dependence. I myself have witnessed a very curious fact, which 

 confirms what I have said*. A vine, trained against the eastern wall of 



* Vegetable life, compared in its means and in its results, to the life of animals, would 

 throw the greatest light on many phenomena which it is still difficult for us to conceive 

 and to exp'ain. The treatment of disease in plants', for which as much would be grained 



