LIFE IN NATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF FUNCTION; OR, HOW WE ACT. 



THE interest which attaches to the study of our 

 bodily structure and powers is daily more widely 

 felt, as the importance of the subject is more fully 

 recognized, and especially as the relations which 

 connect our bodily with our mental and moral life 

 are better understood. Nor is this interest diminished 

 by the difficulty with which its satisfaction is often 

 attended. It is, indeed, stimulated rather than 

 deadened by obstacles, and the desire to penetrate 

 this mysterious world of material life, on which 



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