GENERAL SUMMARY. 57 



71. Starting, then, with the abstract notion of one general Force, we 

 might say that this Power, operating through Inorganic matter, mani- 

 fests itself in those phenomena which we call electrical, magnetical, 

 chemical, thermical, optical, or mechanical ; the agents immediately con- 

 cerned in these being so connected by the relation of reciprocal agency, 

 or " correlation," that we must regard them as fundamentally the same. 

 But the very same Force or Power, when directed through Organized 

 structures, effects the operations of growth, development, metamorphosis, 

 and the like ; and is further transformed, through the instrumentality 

 of the structures thus generated, into nervous agency and muscular 

 power. If we only knew of Heat, for example, as it acts upon the or- 

 ganized creation, the peculiarities of its operation upon inorganic matter 

 would seem no less strange to the physiologist, than the effects here 

 attributed to it may appear to those who are only accustomed to con- 

 template the physical phenomena to which it gives rise. Of the exis- 

 tence of Force or Power, we can give no other account than by referring 

 it, as we are led by our own consciousness to do, to the exertion of a 

 Will; and this unity among the Forces of Nature is the strongest 

 possible indication of the Unity of the Will of which they are the ex- 

 pressions. And further, the constancy of the actions which result from 

 them, when the conditions are the same, that is, their conformity to a 

 fixed plan, or (in the language commonly employed) their subordination 

 to laws, indicates the constancy and unchangeableness of the Divine 

 Will, as well as the Infinity of that Wisdom, 1 by which the plan was at 

 first arranged with such perfection, as to require no departure from it, 

 in order to produce the most complete harmony in its results. 



72. So also, if we endeavour to assign a cause for the existence of a 

 cell-germ, we are led at first to fix upon the vital operations of the pa- 

 rental organism by which it was produced ; and for these we can assign 

 no other cause than the peculiar endowments of its original germ, 

 brought into activity by the forces which have operated upon it. Thus 

 we are obliged to go backwards in idea from one generation to another ; 

 and when at last brought to a stand by the origin of the race, we are 

 obliged to rest in the Divine Will as the source of those wonderful pro- 

 perties, by which the first germ developed the first organism of that 

 race from materials previously unorganized, this organism producing a 

 second germ, the second germ a second organism, and so on without 

 limit, by the uniform repetition of the same processes. Yet we are not 

 to suppose that the continuation of the race is really in any way less 

 dependent upon the Will of the Creator, than the origin of it. For 

 whilst Science leads us to discard the idea that the Deity is continually 

 interfering, to change the working of the system He has made, since 

 it every where presents us with the idea of uniformity in the plan, and 

 of constancy in the execution of it, it equally discourages the notion 

 entertained by some, that the creation of matter, endowed with certain 

 properties, and therefore subject to certain actions, was the final act of 

 the Deity, as far as the present system of things is concerned, instead 

 of being the mere commencement of his operations. If it be admitted 

 that matter owes its origin and properties to the Deity, or, in other 

 words, that its first existence was but an expression of the Divine Will, 



