OF FORCES OF INORGANIC MA TTER. 



75 



may decree that henceforth the terms " living galvanic bat- 

 tery" " vital machine" " animated steam engine" shall be 

 employed, and that a man shall be called a "physico-chemical 

 apparatus" or a " kinetic" or " electric machine" but the 

 nature of the things themselves will not be changed in the 

 least degree however much the meaning of the names by 

 which they are known may be altered by authority. 



Force guided by Matter. But although the new schools 

 hold it absurd to suppose that any peculiar power acting 

 from within or from without can influence the changes in 

 matter, or direct its forces, they see no impropriety in 

 attributing to matter itself, and to force, guiding and direct- 

 ing and forming agencies. They transfer to the non-living 

 those active, controlling, and directing powers which have 

 been hitherto considered as attributes of and limited to the 

 living world. It is the inorganic molecule, not will, or 

 mind, or power, which governs, arranges, guides, and con- 

 trols. 



Professor Huxley has affirmed that a " particle of jelly " 

 guides forces. He remarks, that to his mind it is a fact ol 

 the profoundest significance (!) that " this particle of jelly 

 is capable of guiding physical forces in such a manner as to 

 give rise to those exquisite and almost mathematically 

 arranged structures," &c. (" Introduction to the Classifica- 

 tion of Animals.") But the Professor has not explained 

 what he means by his phrase "guiding physical forces." 

 He should have given us some idea of the property or force 

 by virtue of which this jelly, this albuminoid or protoplasmic 

 matter, is enabled to guide forces, and he should explain to 

 us how the guiding property was acquired. We desire to 

 know something concerning the laws which govern it, and 



