64 THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



covered facts, or recently conducted observa- 

 tions or experiments. I am quite ready to be 

 taught, but I cannot submit to be forced into 

 confusion by force, while I retain vital power to 

 resist. During the last twelve years numerous 

 facts, elucidated in the course of careful micro- 

 scopical investigations on the tissues of plants 

 and animals, which have not been called in 

 question, tend to establish upon a firm basis the 

 doctrine of " vitality ; " or at the least indicate 

 that the phenomena peculiar to living beings 

 are due to the working of some special power 

 capable of guiding, and directing, and arranging 

 ordinary matter, but in no way emanating from, 

 or correlated with, the ordinary material forces. 

 I cannot but conclude from my investigations 

 that the living is separated from the non-living 

 by an impassable barrier by a gulf that will 

 not soon be bridged over ; that matter and 

 its ordinary forces and properties belong to 

 one category or order ; and that creative power, 

 and will, design, and mind, and life, ought to be 

 included in a very different order indeed. 



In conclusion, I submit that the arguments 

 advanced by Dr. Gull, and others, do not show 

 that the opinion that life " is a power entirely 



