Scientific Sophisms. 261 



suppose that any peculiar power acting from 

 within or from without can influence the 

 changes in matter, or direct its forces, they 

 see no impropriety in attributing to matter 

 itself, and to force, guiding, and directing, 

 and forming agencies." They transfer to 

 the non-living those active, controlling, and 

 directing powers which have hitherto been re- 

 garded as the attributes of life alone. Accord- 

 ing to them, it is not " will," or " mind," or 

 even "vital force " it is merely " the inorganic 

 molecule " that arranges, governs, guides, con- 

 trols. 



Thus, for example, Prof. Huxley has affirmed 

 that a "particle of jelly "guides forces. To his 

 mind, he tells us, it is a fact of the profoundest 

 significance that "this particle of jelly is capable 

 of guiding physical forces in srrch a manner 

 as to give rise to those exquisite and almost 

 mathematically arranged structures, etc." l It 

 is not easy to see, however, why the idea of 

 physical forces being guided by a particle of 

 jelly should be accepted as a fact of "profound 

 significance," while the idea of "vitality " acting 

 upon the particles of this jelly, and guiding 

 them and their forces, should be denounced as 

 a fiction, absurd, ridiculous, frivolous, fanciful 

 1 Introduction to the Classification of Animals. 



