UNLIKENESS IN ORGANISMS. 163 



limit life. Secondly, Letourneau speaks of movements 

 in " figurate anatomical elements " as life, but else- 

 where recognizes the fact that these elements obtain 

 their figurate character by the agency of bioplasm. 

 Lastly, Letourncau's definition points out the exist- 

 ence of a co-ordinating force. The figurate elements 

 and plasmatic substances " perform their functions in 

 conformity to their structure." 



Thus, in the progress of discovery, the latest defi- 

 nitions of life approach more and more nearly to the 

 Aristotelian. At the last analysis, this French mate- 

 rialistic definition, which calls life "a movement in 

 plasmatic substances," implies all that has been as 

 serted here, in the definition of life as the power 

 which co-ordinates the movements of germinal mat- 

 ter. The movement in plasmatic substances must 

 have a cause ; and this we call life. Notice the grad- 

 ual approach of science to that definition. The 

 progress of microscopical research has forced mate- 

 rialism forward to this final breaking-up of the ice. 

 The Lucretian theory is ice on which no man dares 

 to stand. Darwin's elective affinities, and Spencer's 

 organic polarities, lie at spots where men already hear 

 the ice break. In Letourneau's definition, the swift 

 central currents begin to pile the ice up on the shore. 

 In Beale's, Lotze's, and Ulrici's, as well as Aristotle's, 

 definition, you have the clear, open stream. [Ap- 

 plause J 



What bearing has this definition on the question 

 as to the origin of conscience? How far has the 

 definition a practical application in reference to the 



