238 INDUCTION OF 



ceiving the impulse shall move most easily in the 

 desired direction ; that is, its motion in other direc- 

 tions must be resisted, or resisted more. The postu- 

 late is, as before, a definite resistance. 



The same thing is presented to us, in a still 

 simpler form, in the transference of heat from one 

 body to another ; the one becoming warm as the 

 other cools, and in consequence of such cooling, 

 or in the action of an ordinary balance, of which 

 the one arm, by its fall, causes the rise of the 

 other. 



These few conceptions, gathered from familiar 

 facts, give us, to a certain extent, a perfect grasp 

 of some of the most baffling phenomena of life. 



As one example, let us take the germination of the 

 seed. Put into conditions which elicit, or permit, 

 the operation of the chemical affinities it begins to 

 decompose. The downward, or approximative, 

 motion thus arising, imparted to other elements in 

 the seed, which are so constructed as to admit of 

 motion most readily in the opposite or vital direction, 

 becomes in those elements a motion of life, or 

 growth. * 



