THE LOWER FOEMS OF LIFE. 11 



in any form is very insoluble in water or acids, but is readily soluble 

 in strong alkaline solutions. When, therefore, the powdered quartz 

 or flint comes into contact with the alkali potash, or soda in the 

 soil, it produces a soluble chemical compound known as the silicate 

 of potash or soda, and in this form it is taken up by the roots of 

 the wheat-plant, and carried through the vascular vessels to the cells 

 of the stem, where it is deposited as seen in the figure round the 

 straw, not as the soluble "silicate," but as the insoluble "silica," 

 or flint. 



And here we have a fine illustration of the operation of vital 

 force. The cell, by the multiplication of which, as we have seen, 

 the wheat-stem is built up, I described as the individual proto- 

 phyton, having the powers of a distinct being ; we find it here acting 

 as a conscious being would do, for it actually selects the silicate 

 from the other minerals in the juices of the plant, and then, by 

 decomposing it, renders it insoluble, and further so disposing it 

 round the stem of the plant as to protect it against the dangers 

 with which its future is threatened. 



Let us put this illustration of vital force in another and still more 

 forcible light. 



Place a rhododendron, a sunflower, and a wheat-plant in the same 

 flower-pot filled with soil. The soluble matters in that soil will 

 pass by endosmosis through the membrane covering the spongioles 

 of the root into the cellular tissues of the plant. The cell of the 

 wheat-plant will select the silicate of potash, because a flinty coat 

 is required for its stem. The cell of the rhododendron will select 

 the lime and reject the silicate, because its stem is woody and solid, 

 and does not require flint to strengthen it, while carbonate of lime- 

 is an essential part of its texture, its branches being designed 

 merely to carry leaves, flowers, and light seed. In the third place, 

 the sunflower will reject the silica, and take up the potash and lime. 



There are men in the present day who attempt to deny the 

 existence of a vital as distinct from a physical force. The same class 

 of men will argue that blind instinct is only a modification of reason. 



As I shall hereafter have opportunities of discussing the great 

 subjects of instinct and reason, I shall content myself here by 

 noting that they are clearly distinct from each other. The mason 

 wasp provides food for young that it never sees. There is here no 

 comparison from experience, and therefore the insect does not act 

 from reason of its own. The act of the insect is instinctive, but the 

 power which instituted the great law involved in this act must have 

 had reason and forethought, or the power of seeing into futurity. 

 The beaver builds his hut in the same manner as the first beaver 

 did. It does not improve, therefore it acts from instinct, which is 



