6i 



IV. 



CONCERNING PROTOPLASM. 



THE nature of that curious collocation of actions we commonly 

 denominate "life," and the connection which exists between life 

 and the bodies it invests and whose interests it directs, have ever 

 formed subjects of extreme speculative interest to cultured mankind. 

 In the classic ages such speculation was rife, and modern biology but 

 repeats the procedure of the ancient world, when, with additional 

 sources of knowledge and wealth of research, it proceeds to discuss 

 anew the great question of the origin and nature of life. Each year 

 brings its own quota of detail and argument concerning this im- 

 portant and fundamental matter of modern life-science, and in more 

 than one aspect it may be said to be the pivot around which the 

 research of to-day turns. The subject of the origin of species, itself 

 a burning question of biology, leads directly backwards to the origin 

 of those powers and properties in virtue of which the species retains 

 its hold on the world, and which lie at the root and foundation of the 

 universe of animals and plants. Investigate the development of a liv- 

 ing being, and you are led directly backwards to the germ from which 

 it springs, and to the consideration of the power in virtue of which 

 the shapeless evolves the formed, and the general grows to become 

 the special. Study the differences and distinctions or the likenesses 

 and resemblances that biology brings to view between animals and 

 plants, and you will inevitably touch upon the subject of the nature of 

 the common life which invests both regions of living beings, and which 

 even in its most varied aspects appears to present features of strange 

 , and confusing identity between the animal kingdom on the one hand, 

 and the plant creation on the other. Pass to consider " the records 

 of the rocks " themselves, and in due course the question of the first 

 beginnings of life on our planet the when, whence, and whither of 

 vitality will crop up like some unperceived, but felt, presence, which 

 hovers around the biological arcanum. The subject of life and its 

 nature thus awaits us at the beginning of existence, as it faces us at 

 its close. We cannot therefore feel surprise that of all questions of 

 philosophy the nature of life should be deemed the most important, 

 and that those who sit in high places in temples biological should 

 so often dwell upon its varied aspects as a fit and proper theme for 

 philosophic consideration by both gentle and simple, learned and 

 unlearned, in scientific ways. 



