LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 55 



and variety towards our knowledge of living beings, and 

 of those organisations upon which vital functions depend and 

 by which they are maintained and reproduced, the question 

 unceasingly recurs, and can in no way be put aside ; What 

 is the principle or property if any superadded to the 

 known properties of matter, giving it those new conditions 

 which create and constitute vitality ? It is this enquiry which, 

 in one form or other, has exercised every age and school of 

 philosophy ; and been argued the more intently, or even 

 passionately, from the question having been often made to 

 embrace intelligence and the other mental functions, as well 

 as mere vitality. Under this latter aspect, it will be recognised 

 as that old problem of Materialism, upon which so much 

 argument has been wasted ; a controversy equally fruitless 

 in all time to come, since no human conception can reach the 

 abstract nature either of matter or mind ; nor any argument 

 show that things perceived by the senses have more indepen- 

 dent reality than the principle perceiving, and the intelligence 

 and volition acting upon them. The materialist fancies him- 

 self on firm ground, because his argument has Matter for its 

 foundation. His matter itself is known only by and through 

 that mind which he assumes to create out of it. 



On this point, and for these reasons, we do not dwell 

 longer ; but rather proceed to that part of the subject, more 

 accessible to human reason, which engages at this time the 

 earnest attention of naturalists in every branch of their 

 science ; viz., the manner and extent of influence of the great 

 physical forces ever in action around us, in producing and 

 maintaining those other powers and properties which we call 

 Vital ; and which, in their aggregate, represent all we can 

 define as Life upon the globe. It is clear that these great 

 powers, Heat, Light, Electricity, and Chemical force or af- 

 finity, whatever their nature or mode of developement, stand 

 to each other, in their action on matter, in the relation of 



