WITH RELATION TO VITALITY. 45 



tion, must, in its essence, be as superior to the 

 organisation, as the hand of the artist is more 

 excellent than the pencil he employs. Organi- 

 sation is destined to display the phenomena of 

 life, as the powers of life unfold and impart 

 those of organisation ; it is, therefore, legiti- 

 mate to conclude, that life is not only a prin- 

 ciple, and a power, higher and prior to the or- 

 ganisation itself, and a fortiori to the pheno- 

 mena that flow from it ; that the corporeal 

 parts of vegetables, and of animals, in com- 

 mon with those of men, are nothing more than 

 instruments, subordinate and subservient to 

 this principle, by the energy of whose formative 

 power, one whole system is constituted and 

 formed ; instead of being formed by the same 

 means, as machines inanimate and common, 

 the whole formed and perfected by the addition 

 of various parts, by a power from without ; 

 we behold, in every living system, the various, 

 parts formed by a power from within, from 

 one united and indivisible whole. It is owing 

 to the unity and totality of this principle, or 

 power, that the various parts of the same sys- 

 tem are connected together, by one and the 

 same bond, why one part of the same system is 

 not separated, or distinct, from the other, but 

 that it is all in all, one whole. 



It is the specific and individual nature of this 

 living* principle, or formative power, which 



