PROTOPLASM. 



Mr. Huxley agrees with those who attribute to matter 

 itself that which has been attributed by others to power 

 acting upon the matter. One view is, that matter guides 

 and rules itself of itself; another, that matter is guided and 

 ruled by something acting upon it. 



Concerning the dictum about jelly guiding physical 

 forces, I shall venture to remark i. That living matter is 

 not jelly ; 2. That neither jelly nor matter is capable of 

 guiding or directing forces of any kind ; and 3. That the 

 capacity of jelly to guide forces, which Professor Huxley 

 says is a fact of the profoundest significance to him, is 

 not a fact at all, but merely an assertion. 



Living matter is first called a name given to non-living 

 matter; then it is asserted that this does so and so, which 

 it has never been proved to do ; this is next stated to be a 

 fact of the profoundest significance ; and by such devices 

 the public is taught to believe in the creative and directing 

 power of the non-living. Arguments of another kind have 

 already led many to accept as an article of faith the dogma, 

 that it is force alone which forms and builds, and designs 

 and makes ; and that the only source of the countless 

 living things which people this earth is the sun, " the God 

 of this new world." 



