234 



not occupying space, are joined in existence with those winch do oc- 

 cupy space, and the place of the latter denotes the sphere of the for- 

 mer. But lest the design of the alternatives should suffer by insist- 

 ing too positively upon either, so far as respects the present 

 application, let them remain as alternatives, either of which is 

 alike convenient. 



35. A nutrient material, of the gross, fluid kind, penetrates the 

 interstices of the component molecules of the structures, and thus 

 obtains a relation with the living spirit, whose sphere is acknowledged 

 in every molecule, and in the conceivable particles composing the 

 molecules, of the fabric of organization. 



36. The nutrient fluid, thus obtaining a relation with the or- 

 ganic spirit, a consequence of this relation is, that the elements of 

 life, or its causes (or the informal life) contained in the nutrient fluid, 

 cease to be elementary and become the identical or living spirit. 

 The mode of this conversion has been already explained ; it may 

 however in this place be re-stated thus: the elements of life are 

 latent in the nutrient material, they are separated from their previous 

 combinations, and united, and thus become life. If it be inquired 

 still more minutely concerning the mode of this instance of causa- 

 tion, it is sufficient to say, such is the relation of the causes con- 

 cerned; but if it should be required to explain it in terms of analogy, 

 we may say that the effect is accomplished by affinity, in the same 

 manner as tire, by an affinity for its own substance, repeats itself, or 

 produces itself, from those sources in which it exists informally, as 

 in coal, wood, &c. and air. That the process is one of assimilation, 

 and not one in which the living spirit operates only as a cause, 

 which is combined with properties in the nutrient material, is proved, 

 as has beeii more elaborately said, 1st, by its preserving its identity; 

 2nd, by the necessity that life should exist in order to its own re- 

 production; 3rd, if life were produced by the union of differentials, 

 one existing in the structures and the other in the material of nutri- 

 tion, the former must fail, as the state of life is perpetually passing 

 away or tending to its extinction, and is continued only by a per- 

 petual renewal of the properties engaged in its support. 



37. It appears then an unobjectionable solution to say, that the 

 living spirit forms itself by an affinity for its elements. This is true 

 of every form of the living spirit. Every organic life belonging to 

 the most simple or the most complex structures affects its own 

 identity; and thus is the uniformity of character of individuals, as 

 well as the general uniformity of species, preserved, alike in the 

 vegetable and in the animal world. 



38. As the living state ceases as soon as the means for its sup- 

 port are withheld, so it is to be concluded that there is no stock of 

 life, that it is not a permanent identity; it lasts as long as the iden- 

 tity of a living or assimilating spirit is preserved, and as long as this 

 spirit is supplied with its constituents. Hence two subjects of in- 

 vestigation are started at this stage, 1st, what effects are produced 

 on related existences, or substances, by the living spirit? 2nd, what 



