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2 forms of being, it is in such that we might expect to find a clue to the nature of that something which, whether entity or mere quality, confers upon living matter its distinctive properties. But whether we examine a seed before development, or watch the rudimental forms of life, that something lies shrouded in matter which, although to appearance inanimate, is yet, through its influence, under genial conditions, capable of developing into a perfect being; and of resisting, for a stated time, the agency of surrounding elements. Thus, growth and development with their antagonisms absorption and decay, effected through the actions of the material framework of living beings, constitute, essentially, life; and the subject of this essay is that something which gives to matter those attributes. The processes, then, of reproduction, growth, and decay, that is, generation, life, and death, are the essential characteristics of living beings, and conferred upon them, as has been said, by that something which is designated Vital Principle.

Now, to homogeneous forms and solitary functions others of more complex nature are superadded, and these give rise to that long chain of being of which man may be regarded as the head; but yet, amid all the simplicity of organs, of action, and of reaction, those two functions still prevail, and constitute life,