86 THE "ENGINEER" OF THE WORD-MACHINE. 



very definitely whether his " engineer " was a property or a 

 force, or an essence; whether he was matter, substance, 

 spirit, or law ; whether he was associated with the material 

 particles he ruled, at a time when they were cosmic dust or 

 vapour ! or whether he was a late introduction, and only 

 began his reign after the primeval atoms, without his 

 assistance and in his absence, had first welded them- 

 selves to form the living jelly speck, and then became 

 a machine ready for the engineer that was for the future to 

 rule it. 



Mr. Huxley surely might demonstrate to us all the 

 "pipes," and the "taps," and the " hydraulic machinery," 

 and the " water " in the little specks of colourless moving 

 matter which constitute the active portion of all living 

 beings, and of which some are entirely composed at every 

 period of existence, and all consist during the first part of 

 their lives. But upon all these questions Mr. Huxley is 

 silent, and his silence seems to me profoundly significant. 

 Is the " engineer " of the living matter indivisible, or 

 capable of being divided into several engineers ? Does he 

 lose or gain power by division ? Is he capable of modifying 

 his character of his own accord, or is he the victim of 

 external conditions, likely to be variously modified and 

 reduced under altered circumstances, to govern himself 

 accordingly ? Can he be weighed or measured, or may his 

 shadow be projected upon the screen, and exhibited in all 

 the greatness or littleness of the original ? 



But Mr. Huxley has not shown and cannot demonstrate 

 the "we" or the "spring" or the "engineer" of the "word- 

 machine." He knows that we cannot observe the " engineer," 

 study him, and experiment upon him. His " box " cannot be 



