PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE. 59 



thus at the threshold of philosophy, to receive the results, 

 though he cannot be admitted to the deliberation in 

 other words, to act upon rules which he is incapable of 

 understanding as LAWS, and to reap the harvest with the 

 sharpened iron for which others have delved for him in 

 the mine. 



It is not improbable that there may exist, and even b 

 discovered, higher forms and more akin to Life than those 

 of magnetism, electricity, and constructive (or chemical) 

 affinity appear to be, even in their finest known influences. 

 It is not improbable that we may hereafter find ourselves 

 justified in revoking certain of the latter, and unappro- 

 priating them to a yet unnamed triplicity ; or that, being 

 thus assisted, we may obtain a qualitative instead of a 

 quantitative insight into vegetable animation, as distinct 

 from animal, and that of the insect world from both. But 

 in the present state of science, the magnetic, electric, and 

 chemical powers are the last and highest of inorganic 

 nature. These, therefore, we assume as presenting them- 

 selves again to us, in their next metamorphosis, as re- 

 production (i. e. growth and identity of the whole, amid 

 the change or flux of all the parts), irritability and sensi- 

 bility ; reproduction corresponding to magnetism, irrita- 

 bility to electricity, and sensibility to constructive chemical 

 affinity. 



But before we proceed further, it behoves us to answer 

 the objections contained in the following passage, or with- 

 draw ourselves in time from the bitter contempt in which 

 it would involve us. Acting under such a necessity, we 

 need not apologise for the length of the quotation. 



