162 LIFE IN NATUKE. 



service. To picture to ourselves, to apprehend, the 

 very Life, the living world, which appears to us 

 under these mechanic forms, this is what we need 

 their aid to do. It is a world that must surpass 

 in depth and fulness this world of mere phenomena ; 

 a world in which Life truly dwells, as it does not 

 in this ; a world of action, in the true sense of 

 the term, as this is not ; a world of perfect order, 

 which the beautiful (yet, alas ! how often cold and 

 cruel) passive order of this world reflects : and we 

 have hearts and souls to know it by. 



What is it that appears to us under the phenomena 

 which we know as those of Life, regarded at once 

 in their results and in their law ? This is the 

 question we must ask. We find it easy to invent 

 an imaginary power, such as " the vital principle," 

 which might (as we suppose) effect all the mar- 

 vellous results of use and adaptation in the organic 

 world, itself being exempted from the dominion 

 of the common laws, and operating simply to those 

 ends. But our true problem is a higher one than 

 this, and admits not of such hasty answer. It 

 taxes more than the imagination, and cannot be 



