1868-9 THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 431 



equal strength, and in smooth working order ; ready, like 

 a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and 

 spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the 

 mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the 

 great and fundamental truths of nature and of the laws of 

 her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life 

 and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel 

 by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; who 

 has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or of 

 art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. 



Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a 

 liberal education, for he is, as completely as a man can 

 be, in harmony with nature. He will make the best of 

 her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely ; 

 she as his ever-beneficent mother ; he as her mouth-piece, 

 her conscious self, her minister and interpreter. 



The third of these discourses is the address " On 

 the Physical Basis of Life," of which he writes to 

 Haeckel on January 20, 1869 : 



You will be amused to hear that I went to the holy 

 city, Edinburgh itself, the other day, for the purpose of 

 giving the first of a series of Sunday lectures. I came 

 back without being stoned ; but Murchison (who is a 

 Scotchman, you know) told me he thought it was the 

 boldest act of my life. The lecture will be published in 

 February, and I shall send it to you, as it contains a 

 criticism of materialism which I should like you to 

 consider. 



In it he explains in popular form a striking 

 generalisation of scientific research, namely, that 

 whether in animals or plants, the structural unit of 

 the living body is made up of similar material, and 

 that vital action and even thought are ultimately 



