UNFAIR INFERENCE. 



or not ; whether the mysteries of his organisa- 

 tion are fairly subjects admitting of investiga- 

 tion;" and, therefore, whetherit is becoming in 

 the Harveian Orator to stir up our minds to 

 search these mysteries out to their fullest ex- 

 tent. It does not appear that anyone has ac- 

 tually expressed himself against such inquiry, 

 but to Dr. Gull himself are we indebted for the 

 inference that one who entertains the opinion 

 which he desires to controvert must therefore 

 hold life to be no proper object of investigation, 

 and must assume that the phenomena of living 

 beings are " out of the range of science." Such 

 a person, moreover, deplores the orator, con- 

 signs us to a " perpetual mental inactivity and 

 ignorance in that region of knowledge in which, 

 above all others, man is interested." But is 

 such an inference natural or just ? Does it 

 really flow from the premises, or has it anything 

 whatever to do with them ? Might it not have 

 been drawn from any other supposable pre- 

 mises with almost equal justification? For 

 how can the opinion that life is a power entirely 

 different from ordinary force, involve the posi- 

 tion that man's organisation is not fitted for 

 scientific study ? If, Dr. Gull seems to argue, 



B 2 



