74 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



Another most important characteristic of living 

 matter is its contractility ; that is, not contraction, 

 but the power of contracting : it is the being able 

 to contract. 



Now, Indian-rubber, or a steel spring, may be 

 said to be able to contract. But then the one of 

 these can only do it after having been put upon the 



changes wrought on the food, by which its alliance to the body 

 is drawn closer and closer, until they become identical ? And 

 so it is correct to say, that the proximate atoms of organic 

 germs are held together by vital affinity ; for this is not equiva- 

 lent to saying they are brought together by vital affinity. To 

 say this, would be to assign this affinity as the primary cause 

 of life; whereas, in fact, the primary cause of life is LIFE 

 ITSELF : for, in every instance, the seed is the product of a 

 parent plant. The parent, therefore, must have an existence 

 antecedent to the seed ; and the life resulting from the seed 

 has, therefore, necessarily for its cause, the LIFE of which that 

 seed was the product. If you ask me for the cause of theirs* 

 life, I answer your question by another. What is the cause 

 of gravitation ? of chemical affinity ? of matter in general ? 

 of creation itself ? What, but the " causa causarum " of 

 the heathen philosopher the CAUSE of all causes the DEITY 

 HIMSELF ? This argument cannot be turned the other way. 

 It cannot be said, that because the plant is always the product 

 of a seed, the seed must therefore have had a prior existence: 

 for the seed is produced by the same economy, in the plant, 

 which produces the leaves, flowers, &c. ; and to suppose that 

 the seed could exist before the plant, is to suppose that the 

 leaves and flowers could exist before the plant. Besides, in 

 every created being, whether animal or vegetable, except man, 

 the production of seed appears to be the final cause of its exis- 

 tence : and the end cannot exist before the means- the thing 

 to be achieved before the means necessary to achieve it. 



