58 EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OP VITAL ACTIVITY. 



what is its continued existence, but a continued operation of the same 

 Will ? To suppose that it could continue to exist, and to perform its 

 various actions, by itself, is at once to assume the property of self-exist- 

 ence as belonging to matter, and thus to do away with the necessity of 

 a Creator altogether ; a conclusion to which it may be safely affirmed 

 that no ordinarily constituted Man can arrive, who reasons upon the 

 indications of Mind in the phenomena of Nature, in the same way as he 

 does in regard to the creations of Human Art. 



CHAPTER II. 



OF THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OF VITAL ACTIVITY. 



73. IT has been shown in the preceding Chapter, that the most general 

 conditions of Vital phenomena are twofold ; one set being supplied by 

 the -organized structure, which is endowed (in virtue of its organization) 

 with certain peculiar properties, but which is inert so long as it is alto- 

 gether secluded from the influence of external agents ; whilst the other 

 is derived from external sources, and consists in a supply of those ma- 

 terials of which the organized structure is built up, and in the operation 

 of those forces by which the organism is made to appropriate those ma- 

 terials, which are the sources of its peculiar powers. We might thus, 

 in a rough and rude way it is true, compare the living body to a set of 

 machinery adapted to convert cotton from the raw material into a woven 

 fabric. Each portion of the machinery does its own special work, in 

 virtue of its peculiar construction ; e. g. one part cards, another spins, 

 and a third weaves ; but their actions are closely related and even mu- 

 tually dependent. Further, their operations all result from one and the 

 same force or power ; and their products may consequently be regarded 

 as the expressions or manifestations of that Force, which acts through 

 the different portions of the mechanism, each in its own peculiar mode. 

 Now. such a machine can produce no result, without the concurrence of 

 these conditions ; namely, the perfectly constructed organism (for so in 

 the wide sense of the term it may be designated), a supply of the raw 

 material on which it is to operate, and an adequate moving power. And 

 it is to be observed, that the amount of its product will depend rather 

 upon the power, than upon the material supplied ; for whilst its activity 

 cannot be increased by any augmentation in the quantity of the material, 

 beyond that amount which it has power to employ, it can be promoted 

 by a more energetic application of the force, as well as retarded by its 

 diminution ; the amount of material appropriated being increased or 

 diminished accordingly. 



74. In like manner, it is requisite to distinguish, among the external 

 conditions whose concurrence is necessary to produce a Living Organism, 

 between those which furnish the materials requisite for its construction 

 and maintenance, and the forces or powers on which its operations are 

 dependent ; in other words, between the Material and Dynamical con- 



