ON LIFE. 371 



ference to the discovery he had made — to the 

 distinct qualities which he had ascertained to be- 

 long to the living parts ? 



The progress of science in the present day, al- 

 though it does not bring us nearer to the compre- 

 hension of the nature of life, yet furnishes us with 

 such analogies as enable us more easily to com- 

 prehend how this principle may be combined with 

 the material of an animal body, and yet be per- 

 fectly distinct from it. The discoveries which 

 have led to the atomic theory, and to that of the 

 molecules of bodies being under a polaric influ- 

 ence, leave us with the impression that the mi- 

 nute particles of common matter (in contradis- 

 tinction to living matter) are under an influence 

 which may be bestowed or withdrawn : that as 

 the index of the compass points to the north by 

 no property of the metal itself, but through an in- 

 fluence given to it and existing around it, so do 

 the most minute particles of bodies arrange them- 

 selves by some such superadded influence, and 

 partake of polarization. If, then, according to 

 the prevailing opinion of philosophers, every thing 

 we touch, or see, or taste, all matter, in short, ex- 

 hibits qualities arising from the arrangement of 

 particles infinitely minute, and that arrangement 

 resulting from an influence exterior to them, or su- 

 peradded to them, does it not facilitate our con- 

 ception of a power or property bestowed on what 

 is termed living matter, and yet essentially dis- 

 tinct? The difference between dead and living 



