Thus there is a very broad distinction between mineral matter and living
matter. The elements of living matter are identical with those of
mineral bodies; and the fundamental laws of matter and motion apply as
much to living matter as to mineral matter; but every living body is, as
it were, a complicated piece of mechanism which “goes,” or lives, only
under certain conditions. The germ contained in the fowl’s egg requires
nothing but a supply of warmth, within certain narrow limits of
temperature, to build the molecules of the egg into the body of the
chick. And the process of development of the egg, like that of the seed,
is neither more nor less mysterious than that, in virtue of which, the
molecules of water, when it is cooled down to the freezing-point, build
themselves up into regular crystals.
The further study of living bodies leads to the province of =Biology=,
of which there are two great divisions—=Botany=, which deals with
plants, and =Zoology=, which treats of animals.
Each of these divisions has its subdivisions—such as =Morphology=, which
treats of the form, structure, and development of living beings, and
=Physiology=, which explains their actions or functions, besides others.
III. IMMATERIAL OBJECTS.
66. =Mental Phenomena.=
Material objects are all either not living, that is to say, mineral
bodies, or they are living bodies. Everything which occupies space,
offers resistance, has weight and transfers motion, belongs to one or
other of these two great provinces of nature. The sciences of Astronomy,
Mineralogy, Physics, and Chemistry deal with the former, while Biology,
with its two divisions of Zoology and Botany, treats of the latter. But
natural knowledge is not exhausted by this catalogue of its topics. In
the very first paragraph of this Primer, in fact, we had occasion to
draw a distinction between =Things=, or material objects, and
=Sensations=; and a moment’s reflection is sufficient to convince you
that sensations are not material objects. A smell takes up no space and
has no weight; and to speak of a pound or of a cubic foot of sound, or
of brightness, is, on the face of the matter, an absurdity. Pleasure is
said metaphorically to be fugitive, but you cannot imagine a pleasure as
a thing in motion.
What we call our =Emotions= are in like manner devoid of all the
characters of material bodies. Love and hatred, for example, cannot for
a moment be conceived to have shape, or weight, or momentum. And when,
in reasoning, we think, our =Thoughts= have the same lack of the
qualities of material things.
Sensations, emotions, and thoughts, thus constitute a peculiar group of
natural phenomena, which are termed =mental=.
67. =The order of Mental Phenomena: Psychology.=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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