WITH THE MICROSCOPE. 327 



compared with the complete machine in actual work, including its 

 superintendent. 



If I study the phenomena of a machine and those of a living 

 organism, I find that although the results may be similar, the means 

 by which the results are brought about are totally different in the 

 two cases ; and if I enquire how the machine was made and how 

 the active organism was made, I find totally different methods have 

 been pursued. In short, it seems to me that no comparison between 

 the working machine and the living cell can properly be made. 



But instead of the superintending agency or directing power being 

 in close relationship with every minute living particle and capable 

 of infinite division without loss of power, as a consideration of the facts 

 of the case leads us to conclude, is it possible that the directing power 

 may operate from a distance, without any definite location, and be 

 capable of exerting its influence through any media that may be in- 

 terposed, able to direct and control the arrangement of matter situated 

 at infinite distance or infinitely near ? 



Having regard to the facts as we know them to be, how, I 

 must ask, can we escape the conclusion that the principles upon 

 which living matter grows and acts are totally distinct from those 

 upon which machines are constructed and work ? 



But again I am told that non-living matter which never manifests 

 phenomena exhibited by every particle of living matter, passes by 

 imperceptible gradations into this last. Yet no one has adduced 

 examples of matter exhibiting such gradations, and, as far as I can 

 ascertain, the assertion is a mere dictum without the slightest founda- 

 tion. It seems to me that the gulf which separates the simplest living 

 monad from man is as nothing compared with that which intervenes 

 between the simplest living particle and the highest and most com- 

 plex form of non-living matter. Instead of a gradation there is an 

 abrupt line, a separation w r hich cannot be bridged over a hiatus 

 which becomes enlarged and more vast as knowledge increases, a 

 distance immeasurable, infinite. 



But scientific dogmatism will prevail, and the energetic disciples of 

 the new philosophy will be well supported and will continue to assert 

 their " positive " formulae, in spite of opposition. ' The sun forms the 

 muscle the sun builds the nerve.' 'The living force-conditioning 

 machine is formed by force.' 'The living cell is a laboratory.' While 

 authorities less confident, ambitious of earning a reputation for 

 caution, unwilling to subscribe to these bold doctrines, or commit 

 themselves to such positive professions, will reiterate the assertion 

 that ere long new facts will be discovered, and then the truth of such 

 and such wonderful generalisation recently disclosed to an expectant 



