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Organic beings are those which have in themselves a source of activity that produces the phenomena of life. They are born, grow, reproduce their own species, and die. They are provided with organs specially adapted to the accomplishment of the different acts of their life, to the satisfaction of their needs, and to their preservation. They include men, animals, and plants.
Inorganic beings are those which possess neither vitality nor the power of spontaneous movement, and are formed by the mere aggregation of matter; as minerals, water, air etc.
60. Is the force which unites the elements of matter in organic and inorganic bodies the same?
"Yes; the law of attraction is the same for all."
61. Is there any difference between the matter of organic and inorganic bodies?
"The matter of both classes of bodies is the same, but in organic bodies it is animalised."
62. What is the cause of the animalisation of matter?
"Its union with the vital principle."
63. Does the vital principle reside in a special agent, or is it only a property of organised matter; in other words, is it an effect or a cause?
"It is both. Life is an effect produced by the action of an agent upon matter; this agent, without matter, is not life, just as matter cannot become alive without this agent. It gives life to all beings that absorb and assimilate it."
64. We have seen that spirit and matter are two constituent elements of the universe. Does the vital principle constitute a third element?
"It is, undoubtedly, one of the elements necessary to the constitution of the universe; but it has its source in a special modification
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of the universal matter, modified to that end. For you, it is au elementary body, like oxygen or hydrogen, which, nevertheless, are not primitive elements; for all the bodies known to you, though appearing to you to be simple, are modifications of the primal fluid."
- This statement seems to imply that vitality is not due to a distinct primitive agent, but is a special property of the universal matter resulting from certain modifications of the latter.
"Your conclusion is the natural consequence of what we have stated."
65. Does the vital principle reside in any one of the bodies known to us?
"It has its source in the universal fluid; it is what you call the magnetic fluid, or the electric fluid, animalised. It is the intermediary, the link between spirit and matter."
66. Is the vital principle the same for all organic beings?
"Yes; but modified according to species. It is that principle which gives them the power of originating movement and activity, and distinguishes them from inert matter; for the movement of matter is not spontaneous. Matter is moved; it does not originate movement.'
67. Is vitality a permanent attribute of the vital principle, or is vitality only developed by the play of the organs in which it is manifested?
"It is only developed in connection with a body. Have we not said that this agent, without matter, is not life ? The union of the two is necessary to the production of life."
- Would it be correct to say that vitality is latent when the vital agent is not united with a body?
"Yes; that is the case."
The totality of the organs of a body constitutes a sort of mechanism which receives its impulsion from the active or vital principle that resides in them. The vital principle is the motive power of organised bodies.
And while the vital principle gives impulsion to the organs in which it resides, the play of those organs develops and keeps up the activity of the vital principle, somewhat as friction develops heat.
68. What is the cause of the death of organic beings?
"The exhaustion of their bodily organs."
- Would it be correct to compare death to the cessation of movement in a machine that had got out of gear?
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"Yes; when the machine gets out of order, its action ceases. When the body falls ill, life withdraws from it."
69. Why is death caused more certainly by a lesion of the heart than by that of any other organ?
"The heart is a life-making machine. But the heart is not the only organ of which the lesion causes death; it is only one of the wheels essential to the working of the machine."
70. What becomes of the matter and the vital principle of organic beings after their death?
"The inert matter is decomposed, and serves to form other bodies; the vital principle returns to the general mass of the universal fluid."
On the death of an organic being, the elements of which its body was composed undergo new combinations that form new beings. These, in their turn, draw the principle of life and activity from the universal source they absorb and assimilate it, and restore it again to that source when they cease to exist.
The organs of organic beings are, so to say, impregnated with the vital fluid. This fluid gives to every part of an organised being the activity which brings its parts into union after certain lesions, and reestablishes functions that have been temporarily suspended. But when the elements essential to the play of the organism have been destroyed, or too deeply injured, the vital fluid Is powerless to transmit to them the movement which constitutes life, and the being dies.
The organs of a body necessarily react more or less powerfully upon one another their reciprocity of action results from their harmony among themselves. When from any cause this harmony is destroyed, their functions cease just as a piece of machinery comes to a stand-still when the essential portions of its mechanism get out of order, or as a clock stops when its works are worn out by use, accidentally broken, so that the spring is no longer able to keep it going.
We have an image of life and death still more exact in the electric battery. The battery, like all natural bodies, contains electricity in a latent state but the electrical phenomena are only manifested when the fluid Is set In motion by a special cause. When this movement is superinduced, the battery may be said to become alive but when the cause of the electrical activity ceases, the phenomena cease to occur, and the battery relapses into a state of inertia. Organic bodies may thus be said to be a sort of electric battery, inwhich the movement of the fluid produces the phenomena of life, and in which the cessation of that movement produces death.
The quantity of vital fluid present in organic beings is not the same all; it varies In the various species of living beings, and is not constantly the same, either in the same individual or in the individuals of the same species. There are some which may be said to be saturated with it, and others in which it exists in very small proportions. Hence certain species are endowed with a more active and more tenacious life, resulting from the superabundance of the vital fluid present in their organism.
The amount of vital fluid contained in a given organism may be exhausted, and may thus become insufficient for the maintenance of life, unless it be renewed by the absorption and assimilation of the substances in which that fluid resides.
The vital fluid may be transmitted by one individual to another individual. An organisation in which it exists more abundantly may impart it to another in which it is deficient; and may thus, in certain cases, rekindle the vital flame when on the point of being extinguished.
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71. Is intelligence an attribute of the vital principle?
"No; for the plants live and do not think; they have only organic life. Intelligence and matter are independent of one another; for a body may live without intelligence; but intelligence can only manifest itself by means of material organs. Animalised matter can only be rendered intelligent by its union with spirit."
Intelligence is a faculty which is proper to certain classes of organic beings, and which gives to these the power to think, the will to act, the consciousness of their existence and individuality, and the means of establishing relations with the external world and providing for the needs of their special mode of existence.
We may therefore distinguish: 1st, Inanimate beings, formed of matter alone, without life or intelligence the bodies of the mineral world; 2d, Animated non-thinking beings, formed of matter and endowed with vitality, but without intelligence; 3d, Animated and thinking beings, formed of matter, endowed with vitality, and possessed of an intelligent principle which gives them the faculty of thought.
72. What is the source of intelligence?
"We have already told you: the universal intelligence."
- Would it be correct to say that every intelligent being draws a portion of intelligence from the universal source, and assimilates it as it draws and assimilates the principle of material life?
"Such a comparison would be far from exact, for intelligence is a faculty that is proper to each being, and constitutes its moral individuality. Besides, we have told you that there are things which man is unable to fathom; and this, for the present, is one of them."
73. Is instinct independent of intelligence?
"No, not precisely so, for it is a species of intelligence. Instinct is an unreasoning intelligence, by means of which the lower orders of beings provide for their wants."
74. Is it possible to establish a line of demarcation between instinct and intelligence; that is, to say, to define precisely where the one ends and the other begins?
"No, for they often blend into one another. But the actions which belong to instinct and those which belong to intelligence are easily distinguished."
75. Is it correct to say that the instinctive faculties diminish in proportion with the growth of the intellectual faculties?
"No; instinct always continues to exist, but man neglects it. Instinct, as well as reason, may lead us in the right direction.
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Its guidance almost always makes itself felt, and sometimes more surely than that of reason. It never goes astray."
- Why is it that reason is not always an infallible guide?
"It would be infallible if it were not perverted by a false education, by pride, and by selfishness. Instinct does not reason. Reason leaves freedom to choice, and gives man freewill."
Instinct is a rudimentary intelligence, differing from intelligence properly so called in this particular, viz., that its manifestations are almost always spontaneous, whereas those of intelligence are the result of combination and of deliberation.
The manifestations of instinct vary according to the differences of species and of their needs. In beings that possess self-consciousness and the perception of things external to themselves, it is allied to intelligence, that is to say, to freedom of will and of action.