7^ Instinct, 



diverse forms of matter composed of the same ele- 

 ments, and takes for its cycle of operations a single 

 day as in the lower algae, or centuries, as in some 

 of the higher animals. If asked now for the origin 

 of this principle, or of its relationship to the great 

 forces of nature, we are at present, as utterly at a 

 loss to account for them as we are to account for 

 gravitation itself or for the law of its action. We 

 can neither deduce this principle from the analysis, 

 nor synthesis of the forces of the inorganic world. 

 We see that they are conditions for its activity, but 

 this no more shows that it is a modification of them 

 than it follows that because water is the condition 

 of the life of the fish, the fish is therefore a mod- 

 ification of that element. It is a characteristic 

 of this principle in all its manifestations to demand 

 and use as a means of putting forth its activities, 

 the different elements and forces of the inorganic 

 world. If asked for the origin of organized beings 

 we come back in all our investigations where we 

 want something given to begin the work with ; as 

 much so, as we need in Geometry axioms that can- 

 not be demonstrated. When Mr. Huxley has car- 

 ried us back to PROTOPLASM, we feel that we are as 

 far off from the goal as ever ; and although some 

 men stand franticly pointing into the dark, declar- 

 ing that the chasm between vitality and physical 

 force has been bridged over, we refuse to budge an 

 inch till we see the bridge, and much prefer to be 

 shouted at and even pounded as stubborn, than to 

 follow a logic that does violence to every principle of 

 sound reasoning, both in its assumed data and in its 



