GENERAL VIEW OF NATURE. 
235 
compreliends ^11 matter destitute of a living principle ; as 
fluids^ gases, ^ind minerals. The particles wliich compose them 
are entirely subject to chemical and mechanical laws. 
The 2d class^ viz., organized substances, includes animals and 
vegetables ; the particles constituting them are in a perpetual 
state of motion ; they are supported by air and food, endowed 
with life, and subject to death ; the active power of life which 
operates in them we call \k\Qmtal jprincijplG. This vital princi- 
ple eludes the researches of man ; all that we know of it is in 
its effects, enabling the organized body to resist putrefaction, 
and, to a certain degree, to maintain a temperature different 
from surrounding bodies. Deprived of this vital principle, both 
animals and vegetables become subject to chemical decomposi- 
tion ; their solid parts are dissolved, and they return to the 
earth from whence they were taken. 
371. K we dig up a stone and remove it from one place to 
another, it will suffer no alteration ; if we dig up a plant it will 
wither and die. If we break a mineral to pieces, every frag- 
ment will be a perfect specimen of its kind ; it will only be 
altered in shape and size : but if we tear off a branch from a 
' plant, or if a limb be taken from an animal, the portion thus 
separated will decay ; the vital principle being extinguished, 
putrefaction and dissolution follow. We should never have 
been able to jpredict.^ from the appearance of the stone^ the plant, 
<md animal.^ that they were thus differently constituted / by ob- 
servations, we find that the productions and mode of growth 
have been attended with different circumstances. We find 
that the stone has grown hy a gradual accumulation of particles 
independent of each other ^ and can only be destroyed by chemi- 
cal or inechanical force / the plant and animal have., on the 
contrary., grown by nourishment., been possessed of parts mutu- 
ally dependent., and contributing to the existence of each other. 
372. So far, our observation teaches us the distinction between 
organized and inorganized beings ; though it does not teach us 
in what the internal power of life consists. God permits us to 
know much, in order to lead us to industry in the attainment 
of knowledge ; but he places boundaries beyond which we may 
not pass, that we may be humble. 
COMPARISON OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC BODIES. 
INORGANIC BODIES. ORGANIC BODIBS. 
Structure. 
rheir parts always analogous to, and not de- 
pending on each other : thus a fragment of stone 
is as much a slone as the block or rock to which it 
belonged. 
Their parts are mutually dependent : thas 
stem, leaf, flower, &e. do not constitute a vegeta- 
ble being, except as they are united ; itift the same 
with the different parts of an animal. 
Second class of substances— Vital principle.— 371. Difference between a stone and a plan*..— 378, 
Btructure of inorganic bodies — Of organic bodies. 
