And so throughout the entire animal scale there is a
graduated differentiation in amount of vitality and in capacity for
motion.
A similar statement holds good with regard to habits of life.
Thus of plants that spring from seed the one function seems to be
the reproduction of their own particular species, and the sphere of
action with certain animals is similarly limited. The faculty of
reproduction, then, is common to all alike. If sensibility be
superadded, then their lives will differ from one another in respect
to sexual intercourse through the varying amount of pleasure derived
therefrom, and also in regard to modes of parturition and ways of
rearing their young. Some animals, like plants, simply procreate their
own species at definite seasons; other animals busy themselves also in
procuring food for their young, and after they are reared quit them
and have no further dealings with them; other animals are more
intelligent and endowed with memory, and they live with their
offspring for a longer period and on a more social footing.
The life of animals, then, may be divided into two
acts-procreation and feeding; for on these two acts all their
interests and life concentrate.
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