LECTURE VII. 329 



and destructive consequences of intense 

 heat, without thinking that heat must be 

 essentiallv active, or that it excites actions 

 in something that is so. 



Who also can observe the quick and 

 powerful motions of animals, without be- 

 lieving that something active is incorpo- 

 rated with them ? The consideration of the 

 vital pheenomena call upon us to admit, 

 that there is some power of controlling, 

 exciting, and modifying those chemical 

 changes, to which the atoms composing 

 them have, under certain circumstances, a 

 propensity, as well as of arranging the ma- 

 terials in diversified structures. Philosophy 

 must always be founded in Nature, and its 

 rules be adapted to the subjects to which 

 they belong. It is natural to man to ob- 

 serve, to enquire, to reason, to believe in 

 various degrees up to perfect conviction ; and 

 we may perform any of these acts, accord- 

 ing to the precepts of philosophy. Scepti- 

 cism has no right to boast of an exclusive 

 claim to be accounted philosophical. Con- 

 fidence may also be as philosophical as 



