■' Library* 



ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF JJFE. 



Ill order to make the title of tliis discourse generally intel- 

 ligible, I have translated the term "Protoplasm," which is the 

 scientific name of the substance of which I am about to speak, 

 by the words "the physical basis o|^j^^ I suppose that, to 

 many, the idea that there is such ^^^^^^^ physical basis, or 

 matter, of life may 1)0 novel — so A^^^^^^^Pd is the conception 

 of life as a sometliing whicli works^^^^Hr matter, but is inde- 

 pendent of it ; and even those wh(^reaware that matter and 

 life are inseparably connected, may not be prepared for the con- 

 clusion plainly suggested by the phrase " the physical basis or 

 matter of life," that there is some one kind of matter which is 

 common to all livino- beino-s, and that their endless diversities are 

 bound together by a physical, as well as an ideal, unity. In fact, 

 when first apprehended, such a doctrine as this appears almost 

 shocking to common sense. ^ What, truly, can seem to be more 

 obviously different from one another in faculty, in form, and in 

 substance, than the various kinds of living beings ? What com- 

 munity of faculty can there be between the brightly-colored 

 lichen, which so nearly resembles a mere mineral incrustation of 

 tlic bare rock on which it grows, and the painter, to whom it 

 is instinct with beauty, or the botanist, whom it feeds Avitli 

 knowledge ? 



Again, think of the microscopic fungus — a mere infinitesimal 

 ovoid particle, which finds space and duration enough to multiply 

 into countless millions in the body of a living fly; and then of 

 the wealth of foliage, the luxuriance of flower and fruit, which 

 lies between this bald sketch of a plant and the giant pine of 

 California, towering to the dimensions of a cathedral spire, or the 

 Indian fig, which covers acres with its profound shadow, and en- 

 dures while nations and empires come and go around its vast 

 circumference '? Or, turning to the other half of the world of 

 life, picture to yourselves the great Finner whale, hugest of 

 beasts that live, or have lived, disporting his eighty or ninety feet 

 of 1)one, muscle and l)lubber, with easy roll, among waves in which 



