Scientific Sophisms* 257 



perhaps have been more candid, as it would 

 certainly have been less misleading, if it had 

 been said at once, and without ambiguous 

 circumlocution, that " its vital phenomena 

 depend" on something of which nothing is 

 known. 



It is Prof. Huxley himself who tells us that 

 the " lifeless compounds " carbonic acid, water, 

 and ammonia, cannot combine cannot, by any 

 wit of man, be combined so as to " give rise 

 to the still more complex body, protoplasm," 

 unless a principle of life presides over the opera- 

 tion. Unless under those auspices the com- 

 bination never takes place. But when we ask, 

 What is that principle of life ? What is that 

 presiding Power ? We are told that there is no 

 such thing ; that " vitality " has no more real 

 existence than " horologity ; " and that we 

 might as well speak of a " steam-engine prin- 

 ciple," a " watch-principle," or a " railroad- 

 principle," as of a "vital principle," or vital 

 force. 



And yet, not even the scathing sarcasm of 

 which Prof. Huxley is a master, can avail to 

 conceal the fact that the analogies thus sug- 

 gested fail in every particular. The power of a 

 steam-engine is in no degree dependent on its 

 connection with some antecedent steam-engine. 



