LIFE. 



143 



considering other views which have been en- 

 tertained respecting it. We shall now take a 

 retrospective glance at the 



II. HISTORY or OPINIONS. In the earlier 

 ages of the world, before the true method of 

 philosophising on any subject was under- 

 stood, it was considered as a sufficient ex- 

 planation of any phenomenon to apply to it 

 some abstract term, expressing a vague idea 

 of a property inherent in the body which ex- 

 hibited it, without attempting to ascertain the 

 conditions of its operation.* Thus, all the 

 phenomena of the movements of the heavenly 

 bodies were attributed to the agency of a 

 " principle of motion," the laws of which were 

 scarcely even sought for. In like manner, the 

 simple optical fact that, when the sun's 

 light passes through a hole, the bright image, 

 if formed at a considerable distance from 

 it, is always round, instead of imitating the 

 figure of the aperture, was attributed by 

 Aristotle to the " circular nature" of the sun's 

 light; whilst the mere consideration that the 

 rays of light travel in straight lines, would, if 

 properly applied, have explained this pheno- 

 menon, not only as regards the sun, but in the 

 case of any other round luminous body placed 

 at a sufficient distance. It is not wonderful, 

 then, that the still more intricate nature of the 

 phenomena exhibited by living beings, the 

 obvious tendency of those presented by each 

 individual towards the same end, and the se- 

 ductive simplicity of the hypothesis, should 

 have induced the philosophers of that age to 

 regard all vital actions as the immediate results 

 of one common cause; but that such a belief 

 should have maintained its ground, with but 

 little alteration, to the present day, can only 

 be regarded as a proof of the lamentable de- 

 ficiency in truly philosophical views among the 

 cultivators of physiology. 



To the supposed cause of vital phenomena 

 the term Life was applied by the older philo- 



* This mode of philosophising has been very 

 happily ridiculed by Kontenelle. " Let us ima- 

 gine," he says, " all the sages collected at an 

 opera the Pythagorases, Platos, Aristotles, and 

 all those great names which now-a-days make such 

 a noise in our ears let us suppose that they see 

 the flight of Phaeton as he is represented carried 

 off by the Winds ; that they cannot perceive the 

 cords to which he is attached, and that they are 

 quite ignorant of everything behind the scenes. 

 It is a secret virtue, says one of them, that curries 

 off Phaeton. Phaeton, says another, is composed 

 of certain numbers which cause him to ascend. 

 A third says, Phaeton has a certain affection for 

 the top of the stage ; he does not feel at his ease 

 when he is not there. Phaeton, says a fourth, is 

 not formed to fly ; but he likes better to fly than to 

 leave the stage empty ; and a hundred other ab- 

 surdities of this kind, that would have ruind the 

 reputation of antiquity, if the reputation of anti- 

 quity for wisdom could have been ruined. At last 

 come Descartes and some other moderns, who say, 

 Phaeton ascends because he is drawn by cords, and 

 because a weight more heavy than he is descending 

 as a counterpoise. Thus to see nature as it really 

 is, is to see the back of the stage at the opera. "- 

 Quoted in Brown's Lectures on Mental Philosophy, 

 Lect. v. 



sophers, who regarded it as a distinct entity or 

 substance, material or immaterial, residing in 

 certain forms of matter ; and the cause, both 

 of their organisation, and of the peculiar actions 

 exhibited by them.* Every sect had its own 

 notion of the origin and nature of this entity; 

 some regarding it as a kind of fire ; others as a 

 kind of air, ether, or spirit; and others, again, 

 merely as a kind of water. The fable of Pro- 

 metheus embodies this doctrine in a mytho- 

 logical form, the artist being described as vivi- 

 fying his clay statues by fire stolen from the 

 chariot of the sun. Whatever was the idea 

 entertained as to the character of this agent, 

 all regarded it as universally pervading the 

 world, and as actuating all its operations in 

 the capacity of a life or soul; whilst a special 

 division of it a divinte particulu aura regu- 

 lated the concerns of each individual organism. 

 The opinions of Aristotle on this subject are 

 very interesting, as presenting evidence of the 

 tendency of his powerful mind to elevate itself 

 above the level of his age, and as showing 

 how completely even he was bound down by 

 the prevalent tendency to hypothetical specu- 

 lation, which seemed to offer so easy a solu- 

 tion to all the mysteries of Nature. " In con- 

 sidering what holds the fabric of the universe 

 together, and forms out of the discordant ele- 

 ments a harmonious whole, he infers from 

 analogy that it must be something similar in 

 kind to that which forms and holds together 

 an organised body, namely, a principle of life; 

 and that this principle, from the appearance 

 of order and design displayed in the universe, 

 must also have intelligence." " Besides this 

 supreme animating principle (<J>u<7t;), the au- 

 thor and preserver of all, there are many others 

 which, by delegated powers, organise the bo- 

 dies of animals and plants, so that all organised 

 bodies whatever are to be considered as con- 

 structed by and constructed for their animating 

 principles, which, like the great animating 

 principle, from being invisible to mortal eyes, 

 indicate their existence, their energies, and 

 their species, only through the medium of the 

 structures which they form. Now, of these 

 structures they are not only the efficient causes 

 but, in his opinion, the formal and the final ; 

 the causes of their motions, growth, and nu- 

 trition ; the causes which give them a character 

 and form ; the causes on whose account they 

 exist ; and even the causes of their being after- 

 wards liable to corruption, as nothing is cor- 

 rupted but what has been nourished, and has 

 some time or other partaken of life. But, 

 besides being causes of organised structures in 

 these different senses, they are subordinate to a 

 higher power, which prescribes their operations, 

 not merely with reference to their separate and 

 individual plans, but with a reference at the 

 same time to that general and comprehensive 



* The term "Vv)(* was applied by the Grecian 

 philosophers to designate this animating prin- 

 ciple, which included, with what is now known as 

 the vital principle, the sensory and intellectual 

 faculties. To the series of vital actions which, by 

 many modern physiologists, is spoken of as Life, 

 the term Zwi was given by the Greeks. 



