INTRODUCTION. 



THE following pages contain a popular exposition 

 of some of the most interesting questions which 

 Living Bodies suggest, and are designed to present 

 in a brief compass and easily-intelligible form a 

 general view of them, which, it is believed, will be 

 found more simple and more satisfactory than the 

 ideas commonly entertained. All thoughtful persons 

 feel that the subject of Life cannot be satisfactorily 

 discussed on physiological grounds alone, but that 

 it opens up some of the deepest problems which 

 surround our existence, and raises questions the 

 practical importance of which cannot be over- 

 estimated. I have therefore endeavoured to give a 

 brief expression to the views which I entertain on 

 some of these questions ; feeling that science, happily 

 for us, cannot, even if she would, confine herself to 



