OF FUNCTION; OR, HOW WE ACT. 33 



And when, in this light, we consider the vital 

 force, it presents no more the same unapproachable 

 aspect. We exonerate it from one part of the task 

 that has been assigned to it. The vital force is not 

 the agent in the functions ; they are effects of the 

 chemical force which the vital force has been em- 

 ployed in opposing. And this is the office and 

 nature"'of the vital force to oppose and hold sus- 

 pended the chemical affinities within the body, that 

 by their operation power may be exerted, and the 

 functions be performed. When we ask, therefore, 

 What is the vital force? we inquire for that force 

 whence it is derived, and how it operates which 

 in the organic world opposes chemical affinity. Re- 

 verting to the illustration of the watch, we have 

 seen the functions to arise from the unbending of 

 the spring ; in the vital force we seek the agency 

 that bends it. 



This is a future task. But before we leave the 

 subject that has occupied us now, let us take one 

 glance at another analogy which it suggests. The 

 actions of the body result from one form of force 

 resisting the operation of another; are not the 



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