The Four Forces in Nature. 
[October, 
6^2 
and growth, and ascending the scale we come to those plants 
possessing in a remarkable degree sensitiveness and the 
power of digestion and assimilation. Plants and animals 
possessing organic viva only have not the power of voluntary 
motion, but either remain fixed or — if free to move have 
no control of their movements. 
In the lowest forms of animal life we find the lowest 
developed form of animal viva, viz., sensitiveness, given by 
the possession of nerves and muscles. As we ascend the 
scale we find this sensitiveness concentrated, and forming 
what is called the brain. It is this sensitiveness which 
educates the brain, and causes some of the higher animals 
— such as the horse, dog, elephant, parrot, &c. to have the 
power of remembering, and in some cases almost to think 
and to reason. . , 
In the case of those animals which have memory we have 
the beginning of the development of mensic viva ; and in 
those animals with both memory and slight reasoning we 
have a still further development of mensic viva, until we 
come to the lowest form of man, when we have the lowest 
form of mensic viva (mind), which is the power of reasoning, 
and is found in the greatest perfection in Christ, and in our 
Shakspeares, Miltons, Newtons, Davys, and Faradays. 
This power gradually diminishes as we descend the scale, 
until we come to those semi-animals who are the lowest 
form of human beings. 
Man can have organic and animal viva well developed, 
and mensic viva strong, as in the case of the philosopher , 
weak, as in the case of the imbecile ; or suspended, as in 
the case of the lunatic. The mind may for ever remain 
blank, as in the case of one born whose brain is not deve- 
loped, or only capable of slight cultivation although fully 
developed, as in the case of one born deaf and dumb, and 
^If we go a step further, and conceive a human being born 
deaf and dumb, blind, and without sensitiveness, such an 
individual might be fully developed, but yet would remain a 
perfect blank so far as possessing any knowledge of this life. 
On the other hand, man can have mensic viva strongly de- 
veloped, and animal viva partially or wholly suspended, as 
in some cases of paralysis, when he has lost entire control 
of his limbs or some important part of his body, and still 
retains all his reasoning faculties. Cceteris paribus , the 
higher the mental power and the lower the organic and 
animal viva, and also the higher the mental power and the 
lower the power possessed by man of procreating his species. 
