Il8 VITALITY. 



and as convincing to the reason as facts of observation and 

 experiment. 



If the explanation of the facts by calling in the aid of 

 some agency, force, or power totally distinct from ordinary 

 force is unsatisfactory, is it not more unsatisfactory, nay, is 

 it not even false, to attribute them to the action of the 

 ordinary cosmical forces, concerning which much is known, 

 but which have never been proved to be capable of effect- 

 ing any changes at all like those which occur in every kind 

 of living matter? 



And it would surely be more in accordance with the 

 true spirit of science, at least while our knowledge remains 

 very imperfect, to study still more carefully the phenomena 

 of the simplest known forms of living matter than to affirm 

 boastingly, that not only these phenomena but those mani- 

 fested by the highest form living matter is known to 

 take, undoubtedly, result from the influence of mere force 

 which never made a brick or formed a wheel, but yet is 

 held capable of constructing those most wonderful and most 

 beautiful mechanisms which could never have been con- 

 ceived by the most vivid imagination, but which are being 

 revealed to us in new multitudes day by day in glorious 

 perfection. Surely, these no more result from the fortuitous 

 or force-impelled aggregation of atoms than pictures, statues, 

 mills, or ships do. 



If, then, we take a general survey of the phenomena 

 peculiar to living things, I think we shall find ourselves 

 compelled by the facts to accept some such inferences as 

 the following : 



