LECTURE I. SJ 



dustry seem to have affixed to it certain 

 resting places, on which, reposing for a time 

 from their labours, they could tranquilly as- 

 semble their followers, and contemplate 

 more extensive views of nature, and of na- 

 ture's laws, than had before been taken. If 

 after having stood by the side of the great 

 teacher Newton, and learned from him the 

 properties of common and inanimate mat- 

 ter, we afterwards attend to Mr. Hunter, 

 our great instructor in the functions of liv- 

 ing beings, he points out to us how matter, 

 starting from the general mass, springs up 

 into life in vegetation. We see vegetables 

 as it were self-formed and producing their 

 own species. We observe them also exerting 

 most of the powers which animals possess. 

 That they have irritability is evident from 

 the current of their sap and their secretions ; 

 nay, in some we observe those vivacious 

 motions which seem chiefly to belong to 

 animal life, as is evident in the Mimosas, 

 the Dionasa Muscipula, and Heydysarum 

 gyrans. We see them like animals having 

 alternate seasons of action and repose j 

 and though in general "Vegetables like 

 animals are in action during the day 



D 3 



