WILL AND VITAL FORCE, 315 



been contemplating in the last section " On the Nature of 

 Life." 



Of all organic mechanism, the most perfect, the most 

 exalted, and as regards mere structure the most elaborate, is 

 the nervous. Widely distributed, but connected so as to 

 form one whole, intimately concerned in the actions going 

 on in various tissues, and co-extensive with most of these, 

 it sends filaments to the very confines of the organism. 

 Through this mechanism alone, the very last to be perfected, 

 changes outside the body may exert an influence upon the 

 peculiar form of living matter by which is established the 

 relation with consciousness. Thus physical changes outside 

 are rendered evident to the conscious life within. The 

 changes occurring in the central living matter of the 

 nervous apparatus may give rise to secondary, combined, 

 and complex actions, through which various ends may be 

 accomplished. These internal impulses are themselves the 

 movements of the particles of the living matter induced by 

 the supposed vital power or agency acting upon them. 



In animals yet higher in the scale of creation, the 

 nervous mechanism through which alone vital power can 

 influence other tissues, so as to give rise to associated and 

 combined acts, is still more perfect and elaborate ; but it is 

 formed according to and acts upon the same principles. 

 Actions most complex, are carried out through the influence 

 of what is ordinarily termed will. But will is essentially 

 related to the highest life, and probably is the vital force or 

 power of certain kinds of living matter. Vital phenomena 

 are not due to will alone, for in all cases these occur long 

 before there are any manifestations of will, as the term is 

 ordinarily understood, indeed, before the tissues through 



