THE LIVING WORLD. 161 



an acting or regulating power in the physical world 

 carries a contradiction in itself. The physical is 

 the sphere of passive results ; its order is a mere 

 sequence of effects ; as being phenomenal, indeed, 

 it is necessarily so. Life is higher than that fancied 

 power embodied in organic things ; or there is none. 

 And tl^e problem which we have to answer is plain : 

 it is to find that Life, of which the seeming life 

 in the organic world, the seeming deadness in the 

 inorganic, alike are the appearance. Nor can we 

 hesitate as to the means by which the solution 

 of this problem is to be attempted. Our higher 

 instincts, our loftier feelings, exist for this end. 

 They demand of us to rise above the physical ; 

 they are violated and crushed when we bring them 

 down within its cruel gripe ; their very nature 

 proclaims their native sphere to be in that which 

 the phenomenal does not include. They derive 

 their existence thence, and must be its interpreters. 



And being set free by the knowledge that the 

 physical world with all its laws and forces is but 

 an appearance, how perfectly adapted they show 

 themselves for the work on which we demand their 



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