JELLY GUIDING FORCES. 77 



by itself. It might, however, be ruled and guided by some- 

 thing else. 



Concerning the dictum about jelly guiding physical 

 forces, I shall, therefore, venture to remark i. That living 

 matter is not jelly; 2. That neither jelly nor matter is 

 capable of guiding or directing forces of any kind ; and 

 3. That the capacity of jelly to guide forces, which Professor 

 Huxley says is a fact of the profoundest significance to him, 

 is not Si fact at all, but merely an assertion. 



Living matter is first called by a name given to non- 

 living matter ; then it is asserted that this does so-and-so, 

 which it has never been proved to do ; this is next stated 

 to be a fact of the profoundest significance. By such de- 

 vices the public are taught to believe in the creative and 

 directing power of the non-living. Arguments of another 

 kind have already led many to accept as an article of faith 

 the dogma, that it is force alone which forms and builds, 

 and designs and makes ; and that the only source of the 

 countless living things which people this earth is the sun, 

 " the God of this new world." 



The physical doctrine of life receives no support from observa- 

 tion or experiment. In the second part of this work I shall 

 direct attention to certain phenomena characteristic of every- 

 thing that lives, the knowledge of which, as it appears to me, 

 renders impossible our acceptance of the doctrine of the 

 physical nature of life of the universal application of physical 

 causation. I have many times expressed the wish that some of 

 those observers who have given their support to the physical 

 views would attempt adequately to explain to us upon phy- 

 sical and chemical principles the changes which occur during 

 each moment of the growth of any simple living thing. I 



