1812. 
PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. — ORGANIZED MATTER. 
327 
On taking a view of the surface of tiie globe, we discover life 
under so great a multitude of shapes, that it may reasonably be 
doubted whether the researches of man, have as yet made him 
acquainted with the half of them. Every part of it teems with ani- 
mated forms ; air, water, and even earth to a certain depth, contain a 
countless variety of objects endowed with that mysterious principle, 
Life. This principle, modified, supports the existence of every 
organised object in the creation, and must not be confounded with 
animation : for this is to be distinguished as the visible operation of 
the anima; or, if we may be allowed so to call it, the breath of Divinity. 
Organized bodies have always, and by universal consent, been divided 
into the two classes of Animal and Vegetable : both these possess 
the principle of life, but only the former, that of animation. Abstract 
these principles, and there remains Matter ; this still continuing for 
a longer or shorter period afterwards, to retain its organization. 
Now, the conclusion which may be drawn from this view of 
terrestrial objects, is ; that organized matter, whether, independently 
of modification, it really be, or be not, essentially different from 
mineral or inert matter, has been destined to be common property, 
and to circulate through the whole system of living objects. By this 
circulation, it passes from one to the other, in unceasing support of 
vitality ; proceeding and returning, sometimes in a wider and some- 
times in a smaller circle, through an endless succession of periods. 
It may be asserted that no new particle of matter ever comes into the 
world ; for this would imply a new creation : that none can be lost, 
for this would imply the annihilation of what the wisdom of the Deity 
has created ; a supposition to which man's reason can not assent. 
Vegetables, most of which are observed to grow more luxuriantly 
in earth impregnated with animal juices or with disorganized animal 
particles, are the first producers of organization ; animals, the de- 
stroyers of it. It is evidently the law of Nature, that matter once 
made capable of life, shall never cease from the same duty ; and it is 
equally so, that animal bodies shall receive no nutriment but from 
organized substances. From this it follows, that in one body life must 
cease or be destroyed, before another can obtain that species of food 
which its conformation renders necessary. The eagle therefore de- 
