212 HEREDITY. 



unite to form the acorn and fructify it. Now, in 

 each of these two parts there is vitality. Life, as 

 the co-ordinating power of the whole organism, does 

 not belong to either of them taken alone. Vitality 

 may belong to an individual cell, but not life. It is 

 certain, that, in a complex organism, you may destroy 

 many a cell, and the co-ordinating power or plan of 

 the whole organism not change. On the surface of 

 the cellular integument we lose cells which possess 

 vitality; but life, the co-ordinating power, is pre- 

 cisely the same, although you lose cell after cell from 

 the cellular integument, and from every other part 

 of the system. From not making this distinction 

 between vitality and life, the greatest blunders have 

 been committed in biological reasoning. A co-ordi- 

 nating of movements must occur before we have 

 evidence of the existence of what we call the co- 

 ordinating power. 



13. After the union of the two elements, there is 

 life ; that is, a power co-ordinating the movements 

 of germinal matter according to the laws of its type. 



Does anybody doubt this ? When an acorn begins 

 to sprout, do you doubt that there is in that acorn a 

 co-ordinating power which begins to weave the oak ? 

 The instant the co-ordinating force, which ultimately 

 produces your king of the forest, commences its work 

 in that acorn, life is there. What is life? Co-ordi- 

 nating power behind the movements of germinal 

 matter. A structuring power must exist before any 

 thing is structured. Crush your germinant acorn, 

 and you kill an oak. You perceive that I am tread- 

 ing here on holy ground. 



