24 



thorough than that to which they have been hitherto submitted 

 will certainly be so much the more demonstrative of their 

 worthlessness. It is utterly unreasonable to assume, as has 

 been continually done, that the laws which govern vital actions 

 are the very same laws as those which all non-living pheno- 

 mena obey. There is not at this time a shadow of evidence in 

 favour of such a contention. It rests only upon pure assump- 

 tion, and is one of the most reckless and most unjustifiable of 

 the many untenable assumptions to be met with in the history 

 of thought. It is opposed to facts of common experience and 

 observation, as, for example, the growth upwards of a tree ; but 

 this as well as other facts have been explained so as to fall in 

 with the assumption. 



It may be freely admitted that if we attribute to vital power 

 certain phenomena of the living world, which have not been, 

 and cannot be, explained or accounted for by any physical 

 laws yet discovered, we thereby assume an agency which we 

 are unable to isolate or demonstrate, and the existence of which 

 we cannot in any way prove. Ou the other hand, it is only fair 

 to observe that, if we assume that phenomena peculiar to life 

 will some day be explained by physics, we certainly act in a 

 manner which is not sanctioned by science we assume, we 

 prophesy, and prophetic assumptions of every kind are contrary 

 to the spirit of science. But, if we accept the dicta of many 

 popular teachers, and assert that these vital phenomena are, 

 indeed, physical, we assent to a proposition which has been 

 actually proved untrue, and which has been shown over and over 

 again to have no foundation, in fact, experiment, or observation. 

 Nevertheless, it may be urged that it is no more incorrect or 

 against the spirit of science to assume that a physical explana- 

 tion will be discovered at a future time, than to assume that 

 the phenomena are due to a force or power which we cannot 

 isolate, and the nature of which cannot be demonstrated. 

 But is it not in accordance with reason to assume the existence 

 of a peculiar power to account for phenomena which are 

 peculiar to living beings, which differ totally from any known 

 physical phenomena, and which cannot be imitated and is it 

 not contrary to reason to prophesy that such phenomena will 

 one day be explained by ordinary forces or powers ? Not- 

 withstanding all the tremendous efforts which have been 

 made by intellects the most robust to persuade themselves 

 and others of the promise and potency of the molecular 

 mechanisms of their imaginations, up to this very moment, 

 nothing which in the least degree justifies their positive asser- 

 tions has been discovered. Nothing like a vital phenomenon 

 has been explained by physical science or imitated in the 

 laboratory. 



