IO THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



surely follow that the organic processes are 

 correlatives of the lower forces. Because heat, 

 light, electricity, &c., are but other forms or 

 modes of motion, that, therefore, LIFE must be 

 also a -higher correlate, is very strange reason- 

 ing. Such an assertion begs the whole question 

 of the analogy existing between the living and 

 non-living. Because the living body does not 

 transmute its material elements, therefore, all 

 vital phenomena result from physics and che- 

 mistry, is a very remarkable argument, but 

 surely not conclusive. We all agree that the 

 materials of which the living body is consti- 

 tuted are the same as those of which non-living 

 matter consists, and that the forces are the 

 same. The question is whether the arrange- 

 ments of the matter, the form of the living being, 

 and the guidance of the forces in living things, 

 are due to the working of ordinary material 

 forces, or to a power of an altogether different 

 order. 



The relation between vital power and the 

 ordinary forces of matter may not be more 

 intimate than the relation between the man 

 who makes a water-mill, and the forces which 

 raise the water that drives the wheel, or the 



