374 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



quality, of indestructibility, and increasing subtility of 

 mode of working, it may, nay must, still be able to 

 minister to, and satisfy, the inherent " longings," and 

 " clingings," of humanity to the indefinite future, or the 

 eternal. Here, however, we must resign the prosecution 

 of the enquiry, in this direction, into the hands of the 

 metaphysician, and those, whose peculiar function it is to 

 bring themselves, and others, into intimate, relationship, 

 and fellowship, with the " unseen, and eternal," with the 

 strong hope that science, and religion, will ultimately, 

 alike, benefit thereby, on the ground that all knowledge, 

 belonging to the human family, is one, and indivisible, 

 emanating from the same sources, and leading in the 

 same directions, although, for the time being, these are 

 so seemingly divergent, contradictory, deviating, and multiplex. 



Life, moreover, regarded from the point of view of its 

 origin, and evolution, may scientifically be said, to be 

 never-ending, and we would, also, say that it is without 

 beginning, save with regard to its original creation, inas- 

 much, as, since that creation, it has continued without 

 break, or failure, each successive unit, of every successive 

 generation of living things, being united by life, to its 

 immediate predecessors, by the indestructible bonds of 

 living energy, operating on, and through, organised 

 material. Thus, also, life is perpetuated, in its higher 

 forms, by the projection into immediate contiguity, and 

 resultant continuity, of two vivified particles of organic 

 protoplasm, the vital amalgamation of which, constitutes 

 the commencement of another generation, and the starting 

 point of a new being. Towards this was contributed, 

 from the two parent sources, a quantity, or proportion, 

 of living matter, the union of which, continues, in undying 

 continuity, the life of the parents, and the antecedent line 

 of pre-existent living forms, constituting our, human, and 

 ante-human, lineage likewise, will the continuance of the 

 operation of the same laws, along the same organic lines, 

 ensure the, propagation, and continuance, of the human, 

 and other, species, ad infinitum, or until the required con- 

 ditions no longer exist. 



Life, vital force, and sympathetic nerve energy, thus 

 viewed, are one. and the same, in nature, and attributes, 



