THEORY OF THE CELLS. 187 
goes on in the latter quite blindly. <A certain impression is 
followed of necessity by a certain change of quality and quantity, 
without regard to any purpose. In this view, however, the 
fundamental power of the organism (or the soul, in the sense 
employed by Stahl) would, inasmuch as it works with a definite 
individual purpose, be much more nearly allied to the im- 
material principle, endued with consciousness which we must 
admit operates in man. 
The other view is, that the fundamental powers of organized 
bodies agree essentially with those of imorganic nature, that 
they work altogether blindly according to laws of necessity and 
irrespective of any purpose, that they are powers which are as 
much established with the existence of matter as the phy- 
sical powers are. It might be assumed that the powers which 
form organized bodies do not appear at all in inorganic nature, 
because this or that particular combination of molecules, by 
which the powers are elicited, does not occur in inorganic 
nature, and yet they might not be essentially distinct from 
physical and chemical powers. It cannot, indeed, be denied 
that adaptation to a particular purpose, in some individuals 
even in a high degree, is characteristic of every organism ; 
but, according to this view, the source of this adaptation does 
not depend upon each organism being developed by the opera- 
tion of its own power in obedience to that purpose, but it 
originates as in organic nature, in the creation of the matter 
with its blind powers by a rational Being. We know, for 
instance, the powers which operate in our planetary system. 
They operate, like all physical powers, in accordance with 
blind laws of necessity, and yet is the planetary system re- 
markable for its adaptation to a purpose. The ground of 
this adaptation does not le in the powers, but in Him, who has 
so constituted matter with its powers, that in blindly obeying its 
laws it produces a whole suited to fulfil an imtended purpose. 
We may even assume that the planetary system has an indivi- 
dual adaptation to a purpose. Some external influence, such as 
a comet, may occasion disturbances of motion, without thereby 
bringing the whole into collision; derangements may occur on 
single planets, such as a high tide, &c., which are yet balanced 
entirely by physical laws. As respects their adaptation to a 
purpose, organized bodies differ from these in degree only; 
