"the great globe itself," share with mankind the gift of Life. On the
other hand, there are well known and energetic uses of the word "Life," to
which Mr. Coleridge's speculations, as contained in the accompanying
pages, are wholly inapplicable. Almost all nations, even the most savage,
agree in the belief that individuals of the human race, after they have
ceased to exist in this mortal life, will exist in another state, to which
also the word Life is universally applied; but to this latter Mr.
Coleridge's views of magnetism, electricity, &c., can hardly be thought
applicable. Still less can they apply to "Life" in its spiritual sense;
as, when Moses says to the Jews, "the words of the law are your _life_,"
(Deut. xxxii, 47,) and when our Saviour says, "the words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit, and they are _life_;" (John, vi, 63;) and again, "I
am the resurrection and the life," (John, xi, 25.) Upon the whole,
therefore, I think it would have been advisable in Mr. Coleridge to have
adopted a different phraseology, in tracing the operation of certain
natural agencies first on unorganized, and then on organized bodies.

Another word, of which I consider an improper use to be made in this
Essay, is "Nature." I find this imaginary being introduced on all
occasions, and invested with attributes of personality, which may be
extremely apt to make a false impression on young or thoughtless minds. At
one time, "the life of Nature" is spoken of; then we are informed that
"Nature has succeeded. _She_ has created the intermediate link between the
vegetable world and the animal." Again, it is said that "Nature seems to
fall back, and to reexert _herself_ on the lower ground, which _she_ had
before occupied;"--and elsewhere we are told that "Nature never loses what
_she_ has once learnt; though in the acquirement of each new power _she_
intermits or performs less energetically the act immediately preceding.
_She_ often drops a faculty, but never fails to pick it up again. _She_
may seem forgetful and absent; but it is only to recollect _herself_ with
additional as well as recruited vigour in some after and higher state."
Now the word "Nature," in any intelligible sense, means nothing but that
method and order by which the Almighty regulates the common course of
things. Nature is not a person; it is not active; it neither creates nor
performs actions more or less energetically, nor learns, nor forgets, nor
reexerts itself, nor