Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/39

 Rh putrefaction and destruction, immediately follow the total privation of life, the importance of which becomes instantly evident when it is no more. I humbly conceive therefore, that if the human understanding can, in any case, flatter itself with obtaining, in the natural world, a glimpse of the immediate agency of the Deity, it is in the contemplation of this vital principle, which seems independent of material organization, and an impulse of his own divine energy.