144 VITALITY. [HOOK n. 



CHAPTER II. 



VITALITY. 



THAT there does exist in living things a power, or system 

 of forces, altogether independent of external agency, is 

 undoubted. As this power is manifested so long only as life 

 is present, ceasing with death, it is properly named VITALITY. 

 Because it is not at variance with the laws of dynamics, or 

 with ascertained electrical or chemical phenomena, some 

 writers have thought themselves justified in referring it to 

 the self-operation of ordinary physical forces. But the more 

 the subject is studied, the more evident does it become that 

 these forces are entirely subordinate ; nor, till the WILL shall 

 be shown to be the mere exercise of some physical power, 

 can it be possible to deny the presence among plants, as 

 among animals, of a mighty force controlling the material 

 agencies of nature in obedience to the unseen commands of 

 an action far above all human comprehension, known to us 

 by its results alone, and called Vitality. 



Were this truth but felt as it should be, physiologists 

 would abandon that profitless, because impossible, search 

 after first causes upon which so much time, knowledge, and 

 skill have been expended. They would humbly admit that 

 there are mysteries in nature which man is not permitted to 

 read ; and they would adopt for their motto, Nee Deus absit 

 in exchange for the Nee deus inter sit of the materialist. 



Examples will illustrate this view better than mere 

 argument. 



An abundance of cases of the spontaneous motion qf fluids 

 in the interior of cells will be found in Book I., Chapter I., 

 Sect. I., of this work. These motions are sometimes called 

 electrical currents : but we ' know of no proof that they are 

 electrical, and if they are, what sets the electricity in action ? 



