184 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



short, a Supreme Power which brought nature into existence and 

 made it such as it is. 



As naturahst and physicist, however, I am only concerned in my 

 studies of nature with the bodies that we know or that have been 

 observed, with the qualities and properties of these bodies, with the 

 relations that they may have to one another under different condi- 

 tions, and finally, with the effects of these relations and of the diverse 

 movements which are distributed and ever preserved among them. 



This method, which is the only one open to us, makes it possible 

 to obtain a glimpse of the causes of those multitudinous phenomena 

 which nature exhibits in her various parts, and to arrive at an under- 

 standing of the causes of the wonderful phenomena presented by living 

 bodies, in short, the causes of life. 



It is no doubt a very important matter to enquire into the nature 

 of what is called life in a body ; what are the conditions of organisation 

 necessary for its existence ; what is the origin of that remarkable force 

 which gives rise to vital movements so long as the state of organisation 

 allows ; lastly, how the various phenomena resulting from the con- 

 tinued presence of life in a body may achieve their result and endow 

 this body with the faculties observed in it ; but of all the problems 

 which man can suggest these are beyond question the most difficult to 

 solve. 



It seems to me that it was much easier to determine the course of 

 the stars observed in space, and to ascertain the distance, magnitudes, 

 masses and movements of the planets belonging to our solar system, 

 than to solve the problem of the origin of life in the bodies possessing 

 it, and, consequently, of the origin and production of the various 

 existing living bodies. 



However difficult may be this great enquiry, the difficulties are not 

 insuperable ; for in all this we have to deal only with purely physical 

 phenomena. Now it is obvious that the phenomena in question are, 

 on the one hand, only direct effects of the mutual relations of different 

 bodies, and only the result of an order and state of things which give 

 rise to these relations among some of them ; and, on the other hand, it 

 is obvious that these phenomena result from movements set up in the 

 parts of these bodies by a force whose origin it is possible to ascertain. 



These early results of our enquiries are unquestionably of very great 

 interest, and give us a hope of obtaining other results no less important. 

 But however well founded they may be, it will perhaps yet still be long 

 before they obtain the attention which they deserve ; because they have 

 to contend with one of the most ancient preconceptions, they have to 

 destroy inveterate prejudices, and present a new field of study very 

 different from any that we are accustomed to. 



