42 MATTER AND FORCE, IN PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 



* 



by their wonderful phenomena, and the laws which 

 .govern them. 



Of vital force that which gives form, function, 

 and transmission of like qualities to successive living 

 organisations I have spoken in others of these papers, 

 for the topic is one closely connected with some of the 

 most profound questions of our time. The term vital 

 principle has been reprehended as denoting what is un- 

 proven and needless, and certain writers have banished 

 it from their philosophy. But that there is some power 

 or force, name it as we will, working upon matter as 

 its subject and instrument in the creation and mainte- 

 nance of the various forms of life, cannot be denied 

 without at once casting aside all argument on the sub- 

 ject. To say that a nisus, or power inherent in matter 

 itself, can create a series of living beings, of definite 

 forms and functions, is either a mere naked assertion 

 utterly without proof, or a virtual admission of vital 

 force under another form of words. The generation of 

 life from life is, and perhaps ever will be, one of the in- 

 solvable mysteries of philosophy. But that it involves 

 some special power distinct from matter, and not iden- 

 tical with any of the other forces known to us, must, in 

 my mind, be taken as a truth furnishing a fair resting- 

 place for our present knowledge. If asked what this 

 vital force is, we may answer by the counter-questions, 

 What is gravitation ? What that force which puts the 

 ether of space into those marvellous movements which 

 we receive as light and heat? These problems are 

 all of the same character, including questions with 

 which no reasoning or conception can cope. 



