THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL. 18.> 



ignore the existence of life apart from protoplasm almost as 

 strongly as Dr. Huxley. It is only right to say Dr. Nicholson 

 adds that at present there is not a shadow of proof to 

 support such a theory. Once more, then, we reach the old,, 

 old question. Are we to consider protoplasm an essentially 

 vital substance? Is hfe its motion or its mover? Proto- 

 plasm is a " vital substance " only when acted upon by life ; 

 but when it is not, it is still protoplasm. Life cannot be its 

 motion, for motion is a phenomenon, and life is not a number 

 of phenomena, but a power that originates and directs^ 

 them. The phenomena exhibited by living beings are clearly 

 largely physical and chemical, and produced by natural 

 laws. The question is whether the directing agent is also a 

 force in the common sense of the word. Now Tait has 

 shown that force cannot direct force, therefore the director 

 of the phenomena of life must be life itself, or in other words 

 mind, which is the only directing agent we know of, or can 

 conceive. Life then is not protoplasm in any condition in 

 A^'hich it may be found ; neither is it any sort of force that 

 moves it, such forces not being vital, but physical and 

 chemical ; but it is in its essence the directing power that 

 sets them in motion, or in other words, mind ; for the phe- 

 nomena of life are clearly the phenomena of mind and not 

 of matter. 



In a leaf the question is, not what moves the molecules 

 to form it (this is a force) but what guides this motion to 

 produce a leaf. And purpose is everywliere displayed by 

 life besides other quahties of mind. An amoeba shows 

 volition, appetite, and passion. Sir J. William Dawson 

 A\^atched one trying to swallow a one- celled plant as long 

 as its own body. It was evidently hungiy, and eager to 

 devour it, and stretched itself to its full extent, trying to en- 

 velop the plant. It failed again and again ; but renev/ed the 

 attempt, until at length convinced of its hopelessness, it 

 flung itself away, and made off in search of something 

 else. 



In a lower form of life still, not even a cell, but a 

 shapeless mass of protoplasm without wall or nucleus (the 

 protomyxa), we find that whenever any particle of nutritive 

 material comes in contact with it it has power to recognise it, 

 and to throw out of its own mass long filaments to grasp 

 it, and then by tlieir contraction and withdrawal to lodge the 

 food within its own body. This undifferentiated protoplasm, 

 destitute of all organs and yet having life, exhibits purpose,. 



