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LIFE ON THE EARTH. RELATIONS OF MAN 

 TO OTHER ANIMALS. 



1868. 



MODERN SCIENCE has been active in deciphering the 

 succession and relation of different forms of life on the 

 earth. The grand marvel is the existence of life itself. 

 All questions are subordinate to this, whether they 

 concern the innumerable forms now in being, or that 

 long and wonderful series of extinct existences which 

 fossil geology has disclosed. 



What is Life ? It has undergone a dozen defini- 

 tions, some by very eminent authorities, but all liable, 

 more or less, to objection from error, incompleteness, 

 or obscurity. The problem has pressed upon every 

 age, and in our own time has been brought into 

 connexion with the latest discoveries of physical 

 science. Nevertheless, we still need a definition which 

 may satisfy all the essential conditions without becoming 

 valueless from its too great generality. That given 

 us by Aristotle, though involved in certain terms of 

 Greek philosophy, is as good as any that have succeeded 

 it. The well-known definition of Bichot : ' La vie est 

 1'ensemble des fonctions qui resistent k la mort,' and 

 that of the Encyclopedic, ; La vie est le contraire de la 

 mort,' are too epigrammatically negative to serve to 



