122 Mr Glover on Foi-ms ej' Induction. 



mind the idea of something which not being really discoverable 

 in nature, is nevertheless believed to exist. Thus, a law, ex- 

 pressing the relation of properties, as cause and effect, gives 

 rise to an idea of power, or of a mutual adaptation between an- 

 tecedent and sequent, — the cause of observed phenomena. This 

 latent adaptation is meant when an attractive force, enabhng the 

 masses of matter to act on each other reciprocally, is spoken of. 

 The law of gravity does not state the existence of any such 

 adaptation, but merely tells a bare fact. As, however, the hu- 

 man intellect feels inclined to give a reason for everything it 

 discerns, and the occurrence of gravitation being an inexplica- 

 ble fact as beheld, by the invention of a hypothesis Avhich does 

 assign a reason for the fact, a mode is thus contrived to harmo- 

 nize the actions of nature with the constitution of the mind. 

 In like manner, when in the system of natural families, a very 

 curious connection has been established between outward con- 

 formation and internal properties, it is perhaps impossible to 

 refrain from believing that this connexion has a cause in some 

 more intimate organisation of the plants in which it may exist, 

 or in the nature of the principle of life itself, which may thus 

 hold together by an appropriate bond of union two sets of pro- 

 perties, which, in their known natures, furnish no reason for the 

 actual relations they may maintain. The belief in the exist- 

 ence of ultimate principles is derived from experience ; it arises 

 from the discovery of the causes of events in preceding cases ; 

 and when any inexplicable connection consisting in nature is 

 detected, there is an instant tendency in the mind to suppose 

 a reason for it.* 



* It will be seen from what is said, that we are of those who assign to vital 

 principles a place in physiological inquiry. There is not space here to enter 

 into a discussion of that question, so involved in controversy ; but we will 

 ask those who deny that such ultimate principles can have any place in phi- 

 losophical inquiry, how they can account for such a fact as that given in a 

 recent paper on development, by Dr Barry, viz. that all animal germs are 

 fundamentally the same, — or that, from structures essentially the same, ex- 

 posed in the Universe to circumstances utterly unable from diversity to pro- 

 duce such diverse creatures (as can be found experimentally), all the varied 

 forms of animalized beings are developed ? There can only be one answer : 



The differences amongst germs which give rise to such dissimilar beings, 



exist in their principles of life ! or are differences in innate susceptibility. 



