IS LIFE UNIVERSAL? 139 



certain point, of a clear and definite answer to the 

 question, What is Life ? Ever remembering that we 

 speak of the bodily life only, may we not reply : It 

 is a particular mode of operation of the natural forces 

 and laws ? We can trace the force operative in life, 

 to and fro, between organic and inorganic bodies ; 

 we c.an see that in the organic world the laws we 

 know in the inorganic are still supreme. But the 

 results are new. 



Thus, it is easy to understand how there has arisen 

 the conception of a peculiar vital Entity, or Principle. 

 This was a rapid generalization before the working 

 of the various forces that conspire in life had been 

 discerned. For the peculiar results, a peculiar agent 

 was supposed, instead of a peculiar mode of opera- 

 tion. Not that this conception has been universal. 

 Individual men have urged reasons in favour of 

 a different view, at various times. One of the most 

 notable instances is that of Coleridge, who, in his Essay 

 towards the Formation of a more Comprehensive TJieory 

 of Life (though giving utterance to some opinions 

 which are doubtful or obscure), seems to have antici- 

 pated, so far as his general view is concerned, almost 



