OF "LIFE.' 



]HAT is to be understood by the term life: is a 

 question which has been answered very differ- 

 ently by different authorities in these days, and 

 it is one to which a satisfactory reply has never yet been 

 received. Few words are in more frequent use, and yet 

 it is most difficult to define the meaning of this word 

 life, partly no doubt, because it has been used in so many 

 different senses. By the "life" of the world, of a nation, 

 or of a society, we mean something very different from what 

 we mean by the " life" of an individual ; for may not many 

 individuals perish without the life of the world, of a nation, 

 or of a society being destroyed or impaired? The "life" of 

 a man, or an animal, is very different from what is termed 

 the "life" of a white blood, or of a mucus,, or pus corpuscle ; 

 inasmuch as many hundreds of white blood corpuscles, or 

 elemental units of the tissues, might die in the man, without 

 affecting the " life " of the man ; moreover the man himself 

 might perish, and some of the corpuscles remain alive. 



" Life," as employed in the first instance, comprises a 

 great number of results and changes so complicated, and so 

 different from one another, that volumes might be written 

 without the subject being exhausted. The "life" of a man 

 or an animal includes phenomena of 'essentially different kinds, 

 some being mechanical 'and chemical, while others belong to a 



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