VITAL POWER. 87 



more extravagant to attribute to ordinary force or energy, 

 atomic rule and directive agency. We might as well try to 

 make ourselves believe that the laboratory fire made and 

 lighted itself, that the chemical compounds put themselves 

 into the crucible, and the solutions betook themselves to 

 the beakers in the proper order, and in the exact propor- 

 tions required to form certain definite compounds. But 

 while all will agree that it is absurd to ignore the chemist in 

 the laboratory, many insist upon ignoring the presence of 

 anything representing the chemist in the living matter which 

 they call the "cell-laboratory." In the one case the chemist 

 works and guides, but in the other.it is maintained, the life- 

 less molecules of matter are themselves the active agents in 

 developing vital phenomena. 



Some have taught that mind transcends life, and life 

 transcends chemistry, just as chemical affinity transcends 

 mechanics. But no one has proved, and no one can prove, 

 that mind and life are in any way related to chemistry and 

 mechanics. If the step from mechanics to chemistry is 

 known, has been proved, and is admitted, that from chemistry 

 to life is assumed, and assumed without the slightest 

 reason. If it had been shown that there was some sort of 

 relation between A and B, and another sort of relation 

 between C D, would any one venture to argue that, there- 

 fore, B and C must be related ? Neither can it be said that 

 life works with physical and chemical forces, for there is no 

 evidence that this is so. On the other hand it is quite 

 certain that life overcomes, in some very remarkable and 

 unknown manner, the influence of physical forces and 

 chemical affinities. Does the tree grow away from the 



