VITA]. PRINCIPLE. ¥4 
Animals, at their birth, present nearly the same pheno- 
mena as plants. When the germ of the egg of a fowl, for 
example, is excited to action, it begins to arrange and con- 
struct the different organs necessary for its future exist- 
ence, from the materials with which it is surrounded. It 
then bursts forth from the shell. Nourishment is not now 
in immediate contact with its absorbent vessels ; so that it 
must employ its feet, bill, tongue and gullet to collect food 
for the stomach. It accordingly begins to pick the grains, 
which a mother’s tenderness has provided, and executes the 
various movements of seizing, bruising and swallowing, with 
all the indifference and dexterity of a confirmed habit. 
A quadruped, at its birth, discovers, with almost unerr- 
ing certainty, the fountain of life, and adjusts its mouth, 
so as to pump out the milk, without being acquainted with 
the properties of a vacuum, or the pressure of the super- 
incumbent air. In the explanation of these phenomena, it 
will be vain to call to our aid the mysterious powers of 
gravitation and affinity ; for mstinct, in these cases, exer- 
cises a controul over them, and directs their influence. It 
is equally vain to talk of the pain arising from hunger, and 
the consequent excitement to exertion, in order to satisfy its 
cravings: for the exertions themselves are predetermined ; 
imstruments are provided to assist ; and the end is accom- 
plished by the smallest quantity of labour. This instinctive 
principle may be considered, therefore, as directing the first 
movements of every organized body, after its kind, to pro- 
cure the nourishment necessary for its future growth. 
But it is obvious, from the situation in which living be- 
ings are placed on the surface of this globe, that many ob- 
stacles will obstruct these exertions. Each species will have 
to contend with difficulties peculiar to its form, and sphere of 
action. Were there no power, therefore, mherent in an 
organized body, enabling it to avoid and remove these, 
VOL. I. B 
