482 GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON 



of a soul in the most minute of animalcules, but that the 

 souls which are thus attendant upon the simplest forms 

 of matter, and which seem so little affected by material in- 

 jury, ought to be of a more refined and perfect nature than 

 those others which are affected by the slightest derangement 

 of a complicated piece of machinery. In other words, the 

 soul of a polype ought to be accounted a more refined and 

 perfect being than that of a man ! 



5. We shall now return to the ordinary doctrine, or the 

 opinion of Locke on this subject, in order that we may 

 understand, or rather endeavour to understand, a new the- 

 ory which has been of late advanced with a degree of con- 

 fidence in its accuracy, that argues any thing but acquaint- 

 ance with this obscure subject*. 



The opinion of Locke seems to have been that there 

 are three kinds of souls, I. A vegetative soul, which is 

 common to all organized matter, and which seems to be 

 nearly the same with that phenomenon which in the pre- 

 ceding pages has been named material life. 2. A sensitive 

 or irrational soul, which is common to the whole of the 



* The writer referred to announces a number of discoveries in natural 

 history ; for, as he does not state his authority, and the facts appear to be 

 quite new, we must give him the credit of their discovery. 1 shall state a 

 few of them for the amusement of naturalists. He says, the first process 

 which distinguishes the animal from the vegetable, is digestion; and that 

 this peculiar characteristic is observable even in the lowest degrees of animal 

 life: hence we leam, either that the Agastiia. of De Blainville are plants, 

 or that oar author has discovered their digestive organs. He says that an 

 animal is distinguished from a vegetable by its power of changing the abso- 

 lute position of the whole of its parts. No wonder therefore that naturalists 

 should have such a difficulty in deciding the place of the Sessile Cirri- 

 pedes. since it appears now that they are plants. A piece of information 

 also, for which our farmers can never be sufficiently thankful to him, is, 

 that the Uredo frumenti draws positive nutrition only from earth. The 

 animal, he says, appears to derive positive nutrition only from organized 

 matter, or rather from that which has previously been alive ; while the 

 vegetable draws the supply from earth, and other uuorganized substances. 

 — My reason for noticing these things is to show, that in certain studies a 

 little more attention to zoology, than is at present bestowed in this country, 

 would not be misplaced. 



