92 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



plished ; for no sooner would matter have become 

 organic, than it would instantly have begun to 

 be disorganized again, by virtue of the laws of 

 fermentation and putrefaction, to which it has 

 been made subservient. But the ends to be an- 

 swered by organized beings required time re- 

 quired a continuity of existence, in a perfect state 

 of organism, for a determinate period. It was 

 necessary, therefore, that there should be another 

 contrivance, in order to withdraw organized beings 

 beyond the influence of the laws of putrefaction 

 and fermentation for a definite time ; that is, until 

 the purposes for which it had been organized should 

 be accomplished. The phsenomena of life exhibit 

 this contrivance a number of temporary phseno- 

 mena, set up in order to withstand the phsenomena 

 of fermentation and putrefaction for a limited 

 period. But, since the phaenomena of life result 

 from contractility, and because contractility can only 

 reside in full activity in very recently organized 

 matter, it was necessary, in order to make the 

 matter of an organized being a fit residence for 

 vigorous contractility, that it should be continually 

 renewed; that, while the whole being, as a being, 

 grew older and older, the molecules of which he 

 is composed should, nevertheless, be always young. 



