INTRODUCTION. 



now regard the living body, would be extended with 

 increased intensity and elevation to those powers, 

 which we call chemistry or mechanics, but which we 

 should then perceive we had entirely under-estimated. 

 Would it not be beautiful to see these forces stand 

 before us thus in a new attitude and with more than 

 doubled lustre ; on the one hand confining themselves 

 witntff the equable and unvarying sequence which the 

 mechanist or chemist seems to have entirely within 

 his grasp, and on the other breaking forth, as if to 

 mock man's fancied rule, into the infinite variety and 

 spontaneous grace of life? the very union of law 

 and liberty, reminding us that liberty is truly none 

 the less, is only, there where law is perfectly fulfilled ; 

 that in the perfectness of freedom the perfect- 

 ness of obedience lies hidden, each in each, yet in 

 Nature separately shown to us (else undiscerning) 

 that we may learn to know them both. But on this 

 point it is needless to say more here, since it is dis- 

 cussed in other parts of the volume. 



In respect to the novelty or otherwise of the views 

 herein contained, I have no wish to make any claim 

 to originality. I believe that in this case as in so 



