LAUGEL'S PROBLEMS OF NATURE AND LIFE. 325 



action, again, we designate by the one short word the 

 use or abuse of which we are now considering. Centri- 

 fugal force, though recognised only as an antagonism, 

 yet has a special reality as such. The force of cohesion, 

 denoting perhaps only one mode of action of a larger 

 power, must nevertheless be admitted into use as the 

 exponent of very important natural phenomena, which 

 we cannot otherwise illustrate than by this or other 

 equivalent terms. To treat fully, indeed, of all that may 

 be attributed to the atomic and molecular forces of 

 matter would be to fill a volume with facts, theories, 

 and conjectures. The phenomena of crystallisation 

 alone, seen under the microscope, and duly appreciated 

 in all their bearings, bring before us a marvellous ex- 

 emplification of these occult forces and actions in the 

 atomic world. 



There yet remain certain powers in the world of 

 creation which, whatever their affinities to those already 

 named, require to be regarded apart, viz., the Vital 

 Forces, and the Force of Volition. In the first of these 

 terms we indicate that mysterious agency which gives 

 form, function, and hereditary succession to all living 

 organisations of the earth, affording to science problems, 

 of supreme interest and supreme difficulty. The notion 

 of a vital principle has been rejected by many physio- 

 logists as improved and needless. But here, again, it is 

 the old conflict of words. That there is some power 

 or force, call it what we will, working upon matter as 

 its subject or instrument in the creation and maintenance 

 of the various forms of life, and that this power, how- 

 ever connected, has its c-wn special character, cannot be 



