. 
1879.] Instinct and Reason. 97 
broader definitions. In the present state of natural science the 
best classifications cannot be otherwise than approximate and un- 
settled. But the link between unorganized and organized matter 
has thus far defied discovery. Whether the different expressions 
of existence are due to that inherent change exhibited by all 
matter—that change in which all natural phenomena consists, 
resulting in a spontaneous generation, the necessary elements or 
factors being present; or whether to a special creation to satisfy 
each individual case, as a species ; these are questions still under 
dispute, whose explanations have their different disciples. 
Passing by that which makes up the organization of all living 
beings—the mineral—it is designed in the following pages to dis- 
cuss the manner in which the different vital forms express their ex- 
istence under their different phenomena, dependent of course upon 
their individual organizations. Hence organization determines 
the character of the individual as well as of a species or family. 
But it should be here stated that it is not intended to discuss the 
province of a species. This is for the specialist. 
Again, we are to observe how each organized being supplies its 
wants and the means or organs for supplying them. In every 
_ form of life, however high or however low in the scale of being, 
there must necessarily be some way in which each form maintains 
its existence. It is not to be expected that all vital beings, irre- 
spective of their organization, demand the same mode of supply, 
but some means of supply. Each after its own kind must so 
dispose of the elements of nutrition about itself as best suits its 
organization. Each one, therefore, will take from the alimentary 
substances it receives only that best suited for it, or is refused, 
or avoided by other higher or lower forms. In this way that con- 
stant change of elements is effected by which all life is supported; 
by which the structure of one is fitted for a higher form of life; 
and the detritus of a higher prepared for a simpler and more 
lowly being. Thus does the vegetable supply the animal with 
food, and in turn the animal adds to the growth and vigor of the 
plant. The luscious fruits of the garden, which form a part of 
the delights of life, contain the same elementary principles found 
in man, but there taken at second hand. The vegetable being a — 
builder up of tissue can exist where the animal would become 
extinct, for it is the tendency of all animals to mace combina- 
tions and to form compound products, 
VOL, XIIIL.—NO, II. 7 
wes 
