244 
COMPARISON BETWEEN ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 
the subjects of moral government; we must, therefore, both from 
our own observation and the declarations of scripture, infer, that 
the faculties of man differ not in degree only, but distinctly in their 
nature , from those of all other beings upon our globe. 
“ Man, (says Buffon,) by his form and the perfection of his organs, 
and as the only being on earth endowed with reason, seems properly 
placed at the head of the kingdom of nature. All, in him, announces 
the lord of the earth; his form marks his superiority over all living 
beings; he stands erect, in the attitude of command; he can gaze upon 
the heavens; on his face is imprinted the character of dignity; the 
image of his soul is painted upon his features, and the excellence of 
his nature penetrates through his material organs, and animates the 
expression of his countenance.” 
In the orders of animals nearest to man, we find the senses of 
sight, touch, taste and smell, equally perfect as those possessed by 
him, and in some cases they are even more acute; but as we pro¬ 
ceed downwards through the gradations of animal existence, we 
perceive the number and acuteness of the senses to diminish—we 
find some beings with but four senses, some with three, others with 
two, and lastly, in Zoophytes, we find only the sense of touch, and 
that so faintly exhibited as almost to lead us to doubt its existence. 
Let us now return to the distinction between animals and vegeta¬ 
bles. You now perceive that although you would find no difficulty with 
regard to a nightingale and a rose, to discover to which of the king¬ 
doms of nature they belong; yet with respect to a sponge or coral, 
a mushroom or lichen, it would be somewhat difficult, without a pre¬ 
vious knowledge of their classification, to say which is called ani¬ 
mal, and which vegetable, or to give the distinctions between them. 
We have seen among the zoophites, that the polypus, like a vegeta¬ 
ble, may be increased by cutting shoots and ingrafting them upon 
other animals. 
With respect to sensation , some plants seem to possess this, ap¬ 
parently even in a greater degree than some of the last orders of 
animals;—the sensitive plant shrinks from the touch; the Dionea 
suddenly closes its leaves upon the insect which touches them; the 
leaves of plants follow the direction of light, in order to present 
their upper surfaces to its influence ; as you may observe in flower 
pots placed by a window. The seed of a plant, in whatever situa¬ 
tion it may be placed in the earth, always sends its root downwards, 
and its stem upwards; in these cases, does there not seem as much 
appearance of sensation and instinct, and even more, than in the 
lower orders of animals ? 
We find, then, that the possession, or want of instinct, does not 
constitute a mark of distinction between animals and plants. 
Some have attempted to draw a line of distinction, by considering 
that locomotion, or the power of changing place, belongs to animals 
only; but this criterion seems to fail, since we find animals fixed to 
the bottom of the sea, or growing upon rocks, and plants moving 
upon the surface of the water. 
Another mark of distinction has been given, in the supposed pres¬ 
ence of nitrogen in animals, detected by a peculiar odour when ani¬ 
mal substances are burning, similar to what we perceive in the com¬ 
bustion of bones; but nitrogen having been discovered in some vege¬ 
tables, this proof is no longer considered infallible. 
It appears then, from a comparison between animals and vegeta¬ 
bles, that these beings are closely connected by the essential charac- 
How differing from them,, 
