238 
GENERAL VIEW OF NATURE. 
of motion. They are supported by air and food, endowed with 
life, and subject to death; the active power or life which operates in 
them we call the vital 'principle . This vital principle eludes the re¬ 
searches 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. Depriv¬ 
ed of this vital principle, both animals and vegetables become sub¬ 
ject to chemical decomposition; their solid parts are dissolved, and 
they return to the earth from whence they were taken. 
If you dig up a stone, and remove it from one place to another, it 
will suffer no alteration; if you dig up a plant, it will wither and die. 
If you break a mineral to pieces, every fragment will be a perfect 
specimen of its kind ; it will only be altered in shape and size ; but if 
you tear off a branch from a plant, or if a limb be taken from an 
animal, they will both immediately begin to decay; the vital princi¬ 
ple being extinguished, putrefaction and dissolution follow. 
We should never have been able to predict, from the appearances 
of the stone, the plant, and animal, that they were thus differently 
constituted; by observations, we find that the productions and mode 
of growth have been attended with different circumstances. We 
find that the stone has grown by a gradual accumulation of parti¬ 
cles, independent of each other, and can only be destroyed by chem¬ 
ical or mechanical force ; the plant and animal have, on the contrary, 
growm by nourishment, been possessed of parts mutually dependant, 
and contributing to the existence of each other. 
So far, our observation teaches us the distinction between organ¬ 
ized and inorganized beings; though it does not teach us in w 7 hat the 
internal power of life consists. God permits us to know much, in or¬ 
der 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 BODIES. 
Structure. 
Their parts always analogous to, and 
not depending on each other: thus a frag¬ 
ment of stone is as much a stone as the 
block or rock to which it belonged. 
Their parts are mutually dependant; 
thus stem , leaf, flower , &c. do not con¬ 
stitute a vegetable being, except as they 
are united ; it is the same with the differ¬ 
ent parts of an animal. 
Origin . 
Molecular attraction, modified by time 
and space, or by the art of man, (as in che¬ 
mistry ;) they are made. 
Owe their existence to beings similar to 
themselves, produced either froni eggs, or r 
brought into existence in a living state;' 
they are hatched or born . 
Development. 
They grow by the addition of new par¬ 
ticles; they are hence said to increase by 
juxtaposition or accretion . 
They develop by assimilating to their 
nature, or converting to their sustenance, 
foreign substances which they absorb, or 
receive internally; they increase by nour¬ 
ishment. 
"Termination. 
They are limited to no particular form, 
(except in the case of crystals;) they have 
no life, and are not subject to death; they 
decompose. 
They have a determinate form and dura¬ 
tion ; their existence terminates either by 
old age, or disease ; they die. 
Vital principle—Difference between a stone and a plant— Structure of inorganic 
bodies—Of organic bodies— Origin of inorganic bodies—Of organic bodies— Develop¬ 
ment of i torganic bodies—Of organic bodies— Termination of inorganic bodies Of 
organic bodies. 
