MECHANISM OP NATURE 

 PROPOSITION XIII. 



HYPOTHESIS. THE LAW OF LIFE. 



Every identity, that possesses life or organiza- 

 tion of any degree, must continually exchange the 

 matter of which it is composed. 



All life is a change, and human reason cannot 

 comprehend anything that is incapable of change. 



All that we perceive is brought to our perception 

 by some change in the thing observed, which pro- 

 duces a change in us. 



And always we associate life with action. 



The living identities, whose life we can perceive, 

 need nourishment to build up again that which was 

 wasted. And when wasting and recuperation cease, 

 the life that animated the identity observed is no 

 more. 



Science has recognized the application of this 

 law of life to the human body, and to animal and 

 plant creation. But iron and stone are still deemed 

 without life, and subject to disintegration only 

 through outside influences. Yet a dead thing can- 

 riot obey a law, and stone and iron obey many 

 laws beside the law of displacement. 



Evidently there is a marked division between 



the matter that composes celestial bodies and the 



matter that fills the space between the several 



bodies. The Mosaic philosophy makes the division 



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