34 DEFINITIONS OF LIFE. 



Thirdly, while I disclaim the error of Stahl in de- 

 riving the phenomena of life from the unconscious actions 

 of the rational soul, I repel with still greater earnestness 

 the assertion and even the supposition that the functions 

 are the offspring of the structure, and " Life 1 the result 

 of organization," connected with it as effect with cause. 

 Nay, the position seems to me little less strange, than 

 as if a man should say, that building with all the included 

 handicraft, of plastering, sawing, planing, &c. were the 

 offspring of the house ; and that the mason and carpenter 

 were the result of a suite of chambers, with the passages 

 and staircases that lead to them. To make A the offspring 

 of B, when the very existence of B as B presupposes the 

 existence of A, is preposterous in the literal sense of the 

 word, and a consummate instance of the hysteron proteron 

 in logic. But if I reject the organ as the cause of 

 that, of which it is the organ, though I might admit it 

 among the conditions of its actual functions ; for the same 

 reason, I must reject fluids and ethers of all kinds, 

 magnetical, electrical, and universal, to whatever quintes- 

 sential thinness they may be treble distilled, and (as it 

 were) super-substantiated. With these, I abjure like- 

 wise all chemical agencies, compositions, and decompo- 

 sitions, were it only that as stimulants they suppose a 

 stimulability sui generis, which is but another paraphrase 



soul itself, and on all who believe in its existence. First, because in my opi- 

 nion it would be impertinent ; secondly, because it would be imprudent and 

 injurious to the character of my profession ; and, lastly, because it would 

 argue an irreverence to the feelings of mankind, which I deem scarcely com- 

 patible with a good heart, and a degree of arrogance and presumption which 

 I have never found, except in company with a corrupt taste and a shallow 

 capacity. 



1 Vide Lawrence's Lecture. 



