INCOMPREHENSIBLE NATURE OF GOD. 371 



went beyond Aristotle. But who shall say in 

 what direction this vast flight shall be, and what 

 new views it shall open to us of the manner in 

 which matter obeys the laws of the Creator ? 



4. But suppose this flight performed ; we are 

 yet but at the outset of the progress which must 

 carry us towards Him : we have yet to begin 

 to learn all that we are to know concerning the 

 ultimate laws of organized bodies. What is the 

 principle of life ? What is the rule of that action 

 of which assimilation, secretion, developement, 

 are manifestations ? and which appears to be 

 farther removed from mere chemistry than chem- 

 istry is from mechanics. And what again is the 

 new principle, as it seems to be, which is ex- 

 hibited in the irritability of an animal nerve ? 

 the existence of a sense ? How different is this 

 from all the preceding notions ! No efforts can 

 avoid or conceal the vast but inscrutable chasm. 

 Those theorists, who have maintained most 

 strenuously the possibility of tracing the phe- 

 nomena of animal life to the influence of physi- 

 cal agents, have constantly been obliged to sup- 

 pose a mode of agency altogether different from 

 any yet known in physics. Thus Lamarck, one 

 of the most noted of such speculators, in describ- 

 ing the course of his researches, says, " I was 

 soon persuaded that the internal sentiment consti- 

 tuted a power which it was necessary to take 

 into account." And Bichat, another writer on 



