56 LIFE IN NATURE. 



time produces and destroys the fountain. There is 

 a constant flux maintained by a hidden power: a 

 mystery, necessarily, until the more mysterious 

 simplicity and grandeur of the LAW are known. 



"We must take a larger view than we are naturally 

 apt to take of the vital relations, and extend our 

 thoughts to embrace processes which do not present 

 themselves immediately to our sense. There is in 

 organic life, truly, a threefold process : the first link 

 of which is a chemical operation external to the 

 living frame itself, a part of the general force of 

 nature, of which the vital force is a particular form 

 and modification only. In the apparent aspect of 

 living things, this primary operation is concealed 

 from sight, and so it is naturally overlooked ; as in 

 a fountain the uninstructed eye takes no account of 

 the previous elevation and fall of the water. Life 

 seems to begin with the nutrition an action opposed 

 to chemical force; but we look farther back, and 

 recognize a precedent chemical change as the origi- 

 nating power. In respect to force, the chain is 

 this: first, in the world around, an action due to 

 chemical force ; then, resulting from this, a change 



