THE VITAL ORDER 



alents. Arrest a purely mechanical process, and the 

 machine only rests or rusts; arrest a vital process, 

 and the machine evaporates, disintegrates, myriads 

 of other machines reduce it to its original mineral 

 and gaseous elements. In the organic world we 

 strike a principle that is incalculable in its operation 

 and incommensurable in its results. The physico- 

 chemical forces we can bring to book; we know their 

 orbits, their attractions and repulsions, and just 

 what they will and will not do; we can forecast 

 their movements and foresee their effects. But the 

 vital forces transcend all our mathematics; we can- 

 not anticipate their behavior. Start inert matter 

 in motion and we know pretty nearly what will 

 happen to it; mix the chemical elements together 

 and we can foresee the results; but start processes 

 or reactions we call life, and who can foresee the 

 end? We know the sap will mount in the tree and 

 the tree will be true to its type, but what do we or 

 can we know of what it is that determines its kind 

 and size? We know that in certain plants the 

 leaves will always be opposite each other on the 

 stalk, and that in other plants the leaves will alter- 

 nate; that certain plants will have conspicuous and 

 others inconspicuous flowers; but how can we know 

 what it is in the cells of the plants that determines 

 these things? We can graft the scion of a sour apple 

 tree upon a sweet, and vice versa, and the fruit of the 

 scion will be true to its kind, but no analysis of the 



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