CHAPTER LVIII.
1140. What is the difference between an animal, a plant, and a mineral?
The great naturalist, Linnæus, used to say that animals grow, live, and feel; plants grow and live; and minerals grow.
Animals are here defined to enjoy three conditions of existence; plants two conditions; and minerals one condition.
This definition has, in latter days, been held to be unsatisfactory, since there are a few plants that are supposed to feel, and a few animals that are supposed to have even less feeling than the sensitive plants alluded to.
The concise definition by Linnæus, nevertheless, is true, as far as regards a vast majority of the bodies constituting the three great kingdoms of nature. And it may be sufficient to say that
Animals—grow, live, feel, and move.
Plants—grow and live.
Minerals—grow, by the addition of particles of inorganic matter.
If we now state the few exceptions that are admitted to this definition, we shall bring the explanation as near to the truth, as the present state of knowledge will permit.