AND THE LIVING PRINCIPLE. 



261 



points in the gradation, enter more at large into 

 the characters which distinguish the Living Princi- 

 ple from Organization and Instinct, which have 

 been generally blended together in one common 

 confusion. The main object of this paper, indeed, 

 is the extrication of these from their entanglement, 

 and the fixing them respectively in their proper places 

 in the Scale of Being. 



Immediately connected with the individual par- 

 ticles of matter which lie at the bottom of the scale, 

 stands the principle of aggregation ; — a principle 

 altogether dependent on gravity. Its operation is 

 not without a tendency to determinate form ; but 

 as that tendency is not sufficiently strong to resist 

 the surrounding counteracting attractions, the mere- 

 ly aggregated masses are amorphous. 



Stratification succeeds. All stratified rocks are 

 more or less crystallized ; but the regularity with 

 which, amidst all their anomalies, and occasional in- 

 subordination, these great masses are deposited, and 

 the mighty preparation required for dissolving and 

 re-forming the whole exterior of the globe, and that 

 without destroying the homogeneity of the strata, 

 lead us to a higher agency than mere gravity and af- 

 finity ; and while we admit the operation of these 

 principles, and the efficacy of that operation, in cir- 

 cumstances adapted to the attainment of the end, we 

 can only, in the spirit of sound philosophy, refer 

 the full accomplishment of the work to their 

 agency under the direct and controlling influence 



