848 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
change its place ; metamorphose, for example, the humble roast- 
ing spit into the end of a lightning rod ... a complete revolu- 
tion, and the magnetic power will appear in it ; proof that its pas- 
sions were formerly only dormant. It is not, as we see, only 
among men that honors change morals. Hardly has the peaceful 
spit been transferred from the lower region of the kitchen hearth 
to the summit of the high towers, hardly has it left the horizontal 
for the vertical, than it has taken a character conformable to its 
new position. Lay the iron down, it goes to sleep — raise it, it be- 
comes active. 
There is nothing colder in appearance, and in its habitual state, 
than a paper of needles, or a box of metallic pens. Examine, 
however, the effect of the magnet-lover’s breath in passing near 
this inert mass ; needles and pens suddenly awake from their 
heavy sleep, stand tremulous upon their points, unite, interlace 
themselves to execute some fantastic saraband ; presently all take 
flight together like a flock of partridges, to strike head and body 
against their centre of attraction, and eagerly encrust themselves 
on it. 
Linnaeus pardon us, but these pens and needles have feeling as 
well as the pet warbler of Descartes’ neice. 
And if the fire of love did not kindle all beings, metals and min- 
erals as well as others, where, I ask, would be the reason of those 
ardent affinities of potassium for oxygen, of hydrochloric acid for 
water, of sulphuric acid for baryta ; affinities so powerful, so well 
understood by us, that we have been obliged to borrow terms 
from their actions to enrich the language of our passions, for we 
have to speak in our figurative political and dramatic language, of 
the fermentation of the public mind, of the effervescence of ideas, 
of the ebullition of incendiary passions, and all these expressive 
images are borrowed from the language of matter, and we say of 
an old man in love, that he is a volcano which burns under the 
snow. It is evident that if these minerals were as calm and in- 
sensible as we pretended, we should not have borrowed their vo- 
cabulary to aid the poverty of our own. Poetry has here been 
more true than science. Parrots of Linnaeus, repeat then as long 
as you please, that minerals do not feel or live, have neither pas- 
