50 Natural Theology. 



labored to construct under its control, and they cease 

 not their work until every particle has taken the 

 inorganic form. In the perfectly adjusted steam- 

 engine moving the ship against wind and tide, or 

 weaving finest fabrics with iron fingers, it seems to 

 the thoughtless observer that the steam is a willing 

 servant, bending its energies to the work. But the 

 mission of the steam is to shatter and destroy. It 

 rushes into the cylinder not to move the machinery, 

 but in very hatred of itself, and struggles to escape. 

 It is the genius of man that controls the struggling 

 monster by bands of iron too strong for him to break, 

 till in his rage he lifts the piston and moves the 

 swift machinery, as he darts howling into the air. 

 Thus also does vitality control and use the adverse 

 forces of the inorganic world. As well might we 

 think that the steam which drives the piston origi- 

 nated the locomotive, or the locomotive the engi- 

 neer that controls it, as to think that life is the off- 

 spring of electricity or any other physical force. It 

 is latest born of all the forces, if it is proper to call 

 it a force at all ; and the time may come when it will 

 vanish from our globe and leave the physical forces 

 victors on the field. But while it is here, it holds 

 its ground by warfare. It builds up only through 

 the agency of physical forces. They build organized 

 beings only under its control. We have had of late 

 the announcement made that we must expunge from 

 our text-books the assertion that the vital principle 

 overrides or controls the chemical forces. We may 

 expunge it from our text-books, but we might as 



