THE VITAL ORDER 



tether when it has resolved a body into its constit- 

 uent elements. Why or how these elements build 

 up a man in the one case, and a monkey in another, 

 is beyond its province to say. It can deal with all 

 the elements of the living body, vegetable and an- 

 imal; it can take them apart and isolate them in 

 different bottles; but it cannot put them together 

 again as they were in life. It knows that the human 

 body is built up of a vast multitude of minute cells, 

 that these cells build tissues, that the tissues build 

 organs, that the organs build the body; but the 

 secret of the man, or the dog, or even the flea, is 

 beyond its reach. The secret of biology, that which 

 makes its laws and processes differ so widely from 

 those of geology or astronomy, is a profound mystery. 

 Science can take living tissue and make it grow 

 outside of the body from which it came, but it will 

 only repeat endlessly the first step of life — that 

 of cell-multiplication; it is like a fire that will burn 

 as long as fuel is given it and the ashes are removed; 

 but it is entirely purposeless; it will not build up 

 the organ of which it once formed a part, much less 

 the whole organized body. 



The difference between one man and another 

 does not reside in his anatomy or physiology, or in 

 the elements of which the brains and bodies are 

 composed, but in something entirely beyond the 

 reach of experimental science to disclose. The dif- 

 ference is psychological, or, we may say, philosoph- 



233 



