234 INDUCTION OF 



If they be more closely regarded, the conception 

 which they convey to the mind, either singly or 

 together, becomes more distinct. The chemical 

 affinities of the elements of organized bodies are 

 common to them with all other forms of matter, 

 and constitute, therefore, a legitimate starting-point. 

 These affinities, the conditions being suitable, give 

 rise to a molecular motion which has been aptly 

 termed downward, and which, if it continue, ends in 

 the production of the simplest compounds. But if 

 this movement be resisted or interrupted in its 

 course, there will exist, as it were, a momentum of 

 motion, which must take another direction, or exist in 

 another form. Now, a molecular motion of chemical 

 character, but in a direction different from that of 

 the chemical attraction, constitutes the very defini- 

 tion of vital action, or of life. It is an upward 

 molecular motion in relation to decomposition as a 

 downward one. The decomposition and the life, 

 taken together, resemble, as before suggested, the 

 movement of a pendulum. They make up a true 

 vibration. 



Whatsoever may be the exact nature of that 



