20 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



sible to us, and as life does not depend on matter, it 

 must depend on spirit. If existence and activity con- 

 tinue after the removal of the original matter, as we 

 have seen, they may also continue after all matter is 

 removed. Continued spiritual existence is certainly con- 

 ceivable, and in view of the endowment of new atoms 

 by the vitalizing force, we must admit it to be probable, 

 even after the material of the organism is all destroyed. 



The cause of life is more than matter and physical 

 force. It uses both matter and force for its own ends 

 and after its own laws. " Its power of control over 

 matter and physical laws proves its superiority over, and 

 its distinction from, matter. Life is matter's master, 

 not its slave. Life is a workman, a builder, a chemist ; 

 and each organized being has its own appropriate life, 

 the result of the union of the spiritual and the material 

 in itself." * 



ii. The view we have taken of the difference between 

 the animate and the inanimate objects of creation is one 

 which is growing in favor with the principal workers in 

 biological science. Dr. Beale's discoveries and gener- 

 alizations in Histology have done much to arrest the 

 skeptical tendencies of scientists, and in one of Mr. 

 Huxley's latest utterances he acknowledges that " the 

 properties of living matter distinguish it absolutely from 

 all other kinds of things," and that " the present state 

 of knowledge furnishes us with no link between the liv- 

 ing and the not-living." f The last-named anatomist 

 names the distinctive properties of living matter as fol- 



* " Agreement of Science and Revelation," by the Author. 

 f Huxley's "Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals." 



