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Show -... Additional Notes, · 1 re a11d consequent volition to examine the object of i't, Pam or p easu , . -as explam· e d m· zo onon1 ia , Vol · I · Sect. XVIII. 17, and. whiCh .n eve.r aJu:t:e cts ·us m• s-1 e ep. In our wakinoo- hours whenever an 1dea .o f Imagi- nati·O n occurs, w1 1 1· c h 1·s 1'n conob -ruous to our former expen. ence,. we ·feel another kind of surprise, and instantly dissever ~he tram of I~na- ·gm. a t.1 011 tu y the po,ver of volition , and compare. the. mcongruous Idea W·i t 11 our previ·O us k110,vled(o) 'e of nature ' and reJeCt It by .a n act of . re. a- sonm· g, o f w1 1 1· c h we are unconl;c:i.ous. , termed in Zoonomm, "IntUitive Analogy," Val. I. Sect. XVII. 7. . . . . The novelty of any idea may be considered as affectmg us wtth . -another kind of surprise, or incongruity, as it differs from the usual train of our ideas, and forms a new link in this perpetual chain; which as it thus differs from the ordinary course of nature, we rinsta;tly examine by the voluntary efforts of intuitive .analogy; or by reasoniRg, which we attend to; and compare it with the usual appear- ances of nature. These ideas which affect us wit11 surprise, or incongruity, or 'llovelty, are attended with painful or pleasurable se1~sation; w~1i c h we mentioned before as intermixing with all catenatwns of antmal .actions, and ·contributing to strengthe11 their perpetual and energetic -production; and also exciting in some degree the power of volition, :which also intermixes with the links of the chain of animal actions, .and -eon tributes to produce it. New by frequent repetition the surprise, incongruity, or 11ovelty ,ceases; and, in consequence, the ·pleasure or pain which accompanied it, and. also the degree of volition which was excited by that sensation of pain or pleasure; and thus the sensorial power of sensation and of volition are subducted from the catenation of vital actions, and they are in consequence produced much weaker, and at length cease entirely. Whence we learn why contagious matters induce th eir effects on the circulation but once; and why, in process of time, the vital movement~ are performed with less energy, and at length cease; whence the debilities of age, and consequent death. 33 ADDITIONAL NOTES. VIII. REPRODUCTION. But Reproduction with ethereal fires New life rekindles, ere the first expires. CANTO II. I. 13. I. THE reproduction or generation of living organized bodies, is the great criterion or characteristic which distinguishes animation from mechanism. Fluids may circulate in hydraulic machines, or simply move in them, as mercury in the barometer or thermometer, but the power of producing an embryon which shall gradually acquire similitude to its parent, distinguishes artificial from natural organization. The reproduction of plants and animals appears to be of two kinds, solitary and sexual; the former occurs in the formation of the buds of trees, and the bulbs of tulips; which for several successions generate other buds, and other bulbs, nearly similar to the parent, but constantly approaching to greater perfection, so as finally to produce sexual organs, or flowers, and consequent seeds . The same occurs in some inferior kinds of animals; as the aphises in the spring and summer are viviparous for eight or nine generations, which successively produce living descendants without sexual intercourse, and are themselves, I suppose, without sex; at length in -the autumn they propagate males and females, which copulate and lay eggs, which lie dormant during the winter, and are hatched by the vernal sun; while the truffle, and perhaps mushrooms amongst vegetables, and the polypus and tmnia amongst insects, perpetnally propagate themsel vcs by solitary Teprocluction, and have not yet acquired male and female organs. Philosophers have thought these viviparous aphides, and the trenia, and volvox, to be females; and have supposed them to have been impreo ·nated long before their nativity within each other; so the t~nia and 0 volvox still continue to produce their offspring without sexual F |
