RECAPITULATION. 147 



call it, of vegetable and animal life, is so far 

 beyond our comprehension, that though some of 

 the same observations might be applied to it, we 

 do not dwell upon the subject. We know that in 

 these processes also, the mechanical and chemi- 

 cal properties of matter are necessary, but we 

 know too that these alone will not account for the 

 phenomena of life. There is something more 

 than these. The lowest stage of vitality and ir- 

 ritability appears to carry us beyond mechanism, 

 beyond chemical affinity. All that has been 

 said with regard to the exactness of the adjust- 

 ments, the combination of various means, the 

 tendency to continuance, to preservation, is ap- 

 plicable with additional force to the organic crea- 

 tion, so far as we can perceive the means em- 

 ployed. These, however, belong to a different 

 province of the subject, and must be left to other 

 hands. 



