INTRODUCTION. 



of the very proofs which would establish the presence 

 of the more. 



It is just in this way we feel when we are reluc- 

 tant to admit evidence which tends to demonstrate an 

 identity between the organic world (that is, of plants 

 and animals) and the rest of nature. When argu- 

 ments of this kind are suspected of a tendency to 

 banish life from the world and interfere with the 

 Creator's prerogative, it is surely forgotten that those 

 forces and laws to which the phenomena of vitality 

 are thus referred, are to be judged of by their fruits, 

 and not to be pronounced beforehand incapable of 

 bearing them. To assume that we know what those 

 laws and forces are, and are capable of doing, is 

 arbitrarily to limit our own capacities. If the organic 

 and the inorganic worlds in nature are two presenta- 

 tions to us of one thing, how much more penetrating 

 and worthy may our knowledge become of both, each 

 being interpreted to us by the other ! 



Let it be assumed, for argument's sake, that all the 

 phenomena of life could be traced back to chemical 

 and mechanical powers, what would follow ? Simply 

 that all the wonder and admiration with which we 



