148 



LIFE. 



its countless living inhabitants. Have we, then, 

 any more reason to assume that a vital prin- 

 ciple or organic agent governs the concerns of 

 each of these beings, than to suppose that the 

 Creator has delegated to a subordinate the care 

 of each individual globe ? Or is it not more 

 consistent to suppose that upon the elements 

 of all He impressed those simple properties, 

 from whose mutual actions, foreseen and pro- 

 vided for in the laws according to which they 

 operate, all the varieties of change which it 

 was His intention to produce, should necessa- 

 rily result? 



By another illustration of a different cha- 

 racter we hope to set this point in a still 

 clearer light, and to be able to dismiss the 

 subject without entering upon it as an abstract 

 question. We shall suppose a young physio- 

 logist, entirely ignorant of physical science, but 

 educated in implicit faith in the vital principle, 

 witnessing for the first time the action of a 

 steam-engine. Here he would perceive a ma- 

 chine composed of a number of dissimilar 

 parts connected together, and moving by some 

 secret agency which he desires to unveil. We 

 may imagine him trying various experiments 

 upon its functions, such as shutting off the 

 communication between the boiler and the cy- 

 linder, or between the cylinder and the con- 

 denser, or applying cold where heat should 

 be, and kindling a fire under the cold-water 

 cistern. Hence he may arrive at the just con- 

 clusion that the actions performed by each 

 part, when the machine was in regular opera- 

 tion, have all a tendency towards one common 

 object the maintenance of its moving power. 

 He will also perceive that these actions are as 

 dissimilar as the structure of the parts exhi- 

 biting them ; and he will not escape being sur- 

 prised that the opposite influences of heat and 

 cold should be essential to their production. 

 Hence he may safely conclude that the whole 

 series of phenomena is due to one presiding 

 agency a "steam-engine principle," by the 

 operation of which upon the material structure, 

 its actions are produced, and made to har- 

 monize with each other, and with their ultimate 

 object. And this conviction would be very 

 much strengthened if he saw the machine en- 

 dowed (as we may, for illustration, imagine 

 quite possible) with the means of supplying 

 its own wants, regularly adding fuel to its fire, 

 and cold water to its condensing cistern, and 

 even repairing for itself the loss it sustains by 

 wear of material. Would such a person, en- 

 tirely unacquainted with the properties of 

 steam, be acting more unphilosophically in en- 

 tertaining this notion, than in attributing the 

 actions exhibited by living beings to the opera- 

 tion of a vital principle ? We think not. In 

 each case the machine or organism is framed 

 to take advantage of the properties with which 

 the Creator first endowed matter; and the dif- 

 ference is that, while the design of man con- 

 structed the first to bring into operation those 

 properties which alone he can control, the de- 

 sign of Omnipotence constructed the second, 

 and adapted it todevelope properties of matter, 

 which can only be exercised under the condi- 



tions which a living being supplies, and of 

 which man, therefore, cannot avail himself. 



We may conclude, then, that if we can refer 

 vital actions to the properties of the organs 

 which exhibit them, called into operation by 

 their appropriate stimuli, we do not require 

 any other explanation of their mutual adapta- 

 tion and dependence than the original design 

 of the Creator. " No agent," it has been well 

 remarked, " can be required to adjust and re- 

 gulate the actions which ensue from this mu- 

 tual adaptation, since they are, like all other 

 phenomena in the universe, under the control 

 of laws inseparable from their very existence." 

 But the question next arises, by what means 

 haveorganised bodies become possessed of these 

 peculiar properties ? It is, as we have before 

 remarked, a mere verbal alteration to attribute 

 the vital actions of an organ to its peculiar pro- 

 perties ; since we understand by these proper- 

 ties only the capability of giving rise to the 

 changes which we witness, and we only know 

 of their existence by the observation of these 

 changes. The real causes of the phenomena 

 must be sought for in the events which were 

 concerned in the formation of the structure, 

 and its first endowment with the properties 

 which it exhibits ; and this leads us to consider, 



IV. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN VITA- 

 LITY AND ORGANISATION. When our en- 

 quiry into the laws of Physics terminates in 

 referring any of its phenomena to the action of 

 one of the universal properties of matter, we 

 feel satisfied that we can trace the operation of 

 second causes no higher; and that the existence 

 of this property as inseparable from matter, 

 and therefore as essential to our idea of it, is 

 the immediate result of the will of the Creator. 

 But in a great variety of instances we cannot do 

 so ; and we observe properties restricted to 

 and inseparable from certain forms of matter, 

 the laws of whose action, however, are as de- 

 finite as in the first case. Such properties, 

 therefore, form a part of our notion of those 

 particular forms of matter ; thus, the magnetic 

 properties of iron, or the energetic attraction 

 which potassium has for oxygen, are characte- 

 ristics of these substances, which combine 

 with others to distinguish them in our minds 

 from other forms of matter possessing many 

 properties in common with them. But these 

 properties will not be manifested except under 

 peculiar conditions ; and according to the ra- 

 rity of the occurrence of those conditions will 

 be the probability of our remaining ignorant 

 of the property. \Ve are obliged to admit, 

 therefore, that every form of matter with which 

 we are acquainted may have properties of 

 which we know nothing, simply because it has 

 not been placed in the circumstances adapted 

 to call them into activity ; since it is only by an 

 fiction of some kind that the mind can become 

 cognisant of their existence. W r e see, then, 

 that it is very possible that all matter, or at 

 least all those forms of it capable of becoming 

 organised, may be possessed of properties 

 which shall give rise to the actions termed 

 vital, when they are placed in certain condi- 

 tions; and that the mere absence of any mani- 



