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ON THE VITAL PRINCIPLE - Book 2
ON THE VITAL PRINCIPLE - Book 2
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Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure. (Worth every penny!)
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An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I.
THUS have the opinions handed down by former writers upon Vital Principle been delineated; and now let us retrace our steps, and again, as if at the outset of our inquiry, endeavour to define what it is and what the most general expression for it.
We say, then, that essence is a particular genus of entities, and that of it part is matter, which in itself is not any one particular object, as it is other than form and species from which each object derives its particular denomination; and that, in the third place, there is the derivative from both these. Now matter is potentiality, species reality, and that in a twofold acceptation, as knowledge and as reflexion; but bodies, and above all natural bodies, seem to be essences; for they are, in fact, the origins of other bodies. Among natural bodies some have and some have not life; and by life we mean the faculties of self-nourishment, self-growth and self-decay. Thus, every natural body partaking of life may be regarded as an essence; but then it is an essence in combination, as has been said. And since the body is such a combination, being possessed of life, it cannot be Vital Principle; for as it is itself more truly subject and matter, it cannot be among the subordinates of a subject. It follows, then, that the Vital Principle must be an essence, as being the form of a natural body holding life in potentiality; but essence is a reality,—the reality, that is, of a body such as has been described. Now reality is, in the twofold signification, either of knowledge or of reflexion; and that it may be regarded as knowledge is manifest in that sleep and watching co-exist as original properties, in Vital Principle; and equally manifest that watching is analogous to reflexion upon knowledge, as that sleep represents knowledge possessed but not employed. But knowledge pre-exists in the same individual, and the Vital Principle is, therefore, the original reality of a natural body endowed with life in potentiality; only this is to be understood of a body which may be organised. Thus, the parts even of plants are organs, but then they are organs which are altogether simple, as the leaf is the covering of the pericarp, and the pericarp of the fruit; and the roots are analogous to the mouth, for both take in food. If, then, there be any general expression for every kind of Vital Principle, it may be set down as "the incipient reality of a natural body which is organised"
It is, therefore, to no purpose to inquire whether Vital Principle and the body are one, any more than whether wax and the impress upon it are one, or whether the matter formative of any object and the object formed are one ; for one and being have many significations, but they are correctly designated as reality.
***
An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I.
THUS have the opinions handed down by former writers upon Vital Principle been delineated; and now let us retrace our steps, and again, as if at the outset of our inquiry, endeavour to define what it is and what the most general expression for it.
We say, then, that essence is a particular genus of entities, and that of it part is matter, which in itself is not any one particular object, as it is other than form and species from which each object derives its particular denomination; and that, in the third place, there is the derivative from both these. Now matter is potentiality, species reality, and that in a twofold acceptation, as knowledge and as reflexion; but bodies, and above all natural bodies, seem to be essences; for they are, in fact, the origins of other bodies. Among natural bodies some have and some have not life; and by life we mean the faculties of self-nourishment, self-growth and self-decay. Thus, every natural body partaking of life may be regarded as an essence; but then it is an essence in combination, as has been said. And since the body is such a combination, being possessed of life, it cannot be Vital Principle; for as it is itself more truly subject and matter, it cannot be among the subordinates of a subject. It follows, then, that the Vital Principle must be an essence, as being the form of a natural body holding life in potentiality; but essence is a reality,—the reality, that is, of a body such as has been described. Now reality is, in the twofold signification, either of knowledge or of reflexion; and that it may be regarded as knowledge is manifest in that sleep and watching co-exist as original properties, in Vital Principle; and equally manifest that watching is analogous to reflexion upon knowledge, as that sleep represents knowledge possessed but not employed. But knowledge pre-exists in the same individual, and the Vital Principle is, therefore, the original reality of a natural body endowed with life in potentiality; only this is to be understood of a body which may be organised. Thus, the parts even of plants are organs, but then they are organs which are altogether simple, as the leaf is the covering of the pericarp, and the pericarp of the fruit; and the roots are analogous to the mouth, for both take in food. If, then, there be any general expression for every kind of Vital Principle, it may be set down as "the incipient reality of a natural body which is organised"
It is, therefore, to no purpose to inquire whether Vital Principle and the body are one, any more than whether wax and the impress upon it are one, or whether the matter formative of any object and the object formed are one ; for one and being have many significations, but they are correctly designated as reality.
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