ion.

In the class immediately above (Mollusca) we find the individuals
separate, a more determinate form, and in the higher species, the rudiment
of nerves, as the first scarce distinguishable impress and exponent of
sensibility; still, however, the vegetative reproduction is the
predominant form; and even the nerves "which float in the same cavity with
the other viscera," are probably subservient to it, and extend their power
in the increased intensity of the reproductive force. Still prevails the
transitional state from the fluid to the solid; and the jelly, that
rudiment in which all animals, even the noblest, have their commencement;
constitutes the whole sphere of these rudimental animals.

In the snail and muscle, the residuum of the coral reappears, but refined
and ennobled into a part of the animal. The whole class is characterised
by the separation of the fluid from the solid. On the one side, a
gelatinous semi-fluid; on the other side, an entirely inorganic, though
often a most exquisitely mechanised, calcareous excretion.

Animalization in general is, we know, contra-distinguished from vegetables
in general by the predominance of azote in the chemical composition, and
of irritability in the organic process. But in this and the foregoing
classes, as being still near the common equator, or the punctum
indifferentiae, the carbonic principle still asserts its claims, and the
force of reproduction struggles with that of irritability. In the
unreconciled strife of these two forces consists the character of the
_Vermes_, which appear to be the preparatory step for the next class.
Hence the difficulties which have embarrassed the naturalists, who adopt
the Linnaean classification, in their endeavours to discover determinate
characters of distinction between the vermes and the insecta.

But no sooner have we passed the borders, than endless variety of form and
the bold display of instincts announce, that Nature has succeeded. She has
created the intermediate link between the vegetable world, as the product
of the reproductive or magnetic power, and the animal as the exponent of
sensibility. Those that live and are nourished, on the bodies of other
animals, are comparatively few, with little diversity of shape, and almost
all of the same natural family. These we may pass by as exceptions. But
the insect world, taken at large, appears as an intenser life, that has
struggled itself loose and become emancipated from ve