civ iiEPORT — 1869. 



though the poiidcrahle matter so uniting is subject to the laws of motion 

 during the act of union, just as well as before and after. In the various pro- 

 cesses of crj'stallization of precipitation, and so forth, which we witness in 

 dead matter, I cannot see the faintest shadow of au approach to the forma- 

 tion of an organic structure, still less to the wonderful series of changes 

 which are concerned iu the growth and perpetuation of even the lowliest 

 plant. Admitting to the full as highly probable, though not completely de- 

 monstrated, the applicability to living beings of the laws which have been 

 ascertained with reference to dead matter, I feel constrained at the same time 

 to admit the existence of a mysterious something lying beyond, — a something 

 sui generis, which I regard, not as balancing and suspending the ordinary 

 physical laws, but as working with them and through them to the attainment 

 of a designed end. 



What this something, which we call life, may be, is a profound mystery. 

 We know not how many links iu the chain of secondary causation may j'^et 

 remain behind ; we know not how few. It would be presumptuous indeed to 

 assume in any case that we had already reached the last link, and to charge 

 with irreverence a fellow-worker who attempted to push his investigations 

 yet one step further back. On the other hand, if a thick darkness enshrouds 

 all beyond, we have no right to assume it to be impossible that we should have 

 reached even the last link of the chain ; a stage where further progress is unat- 

 tainable, and we can only refer the highest law at which we stopped to the fiat 

 of an Almighty Power. To assume the contrary as a matter of necessity, is prac- 

 tically to remove the First Cause of all to an infinite distance from us. The boun- 

 dary, however, between what is clearly known and what is veiled in impene- 

 trable darkness is not ordinarily thus sharjjly defined. Between the two there 

 lies a misty region, in which loom the ill-discerned forms of links of the chain 

 which are yet beyond us. But the general principle is not afi'ected thereby. 

 Let us fearlessly trace the dependence of link on link as far as it may be 

 given us to trace it, but let us take heed that iu thus studying second causes 

 we forget not the First Cause, nor shut our eyes to the wonderful proofs of 

 design which, in the study of organized beings especially, meet us at evcrj'- 

 turn. 



Truth we know must be self-consistent, nor can one truth contradict 

 another, even though the two may have been arrived at b}' totally different 

 processes, in the one case, suppose, obtained by sound scientific investigation, 

 in the other case taken on trust from duly authenticated witnesses. Misin- 

 terpretations of course there may be on the one side or on the other, causing 

 apparent contradictions. Every mathematician knows that in his private 

 work he will occasionally by two different trains of reasoning arrive at dis- 

 cordant conclusions. He is at once aware that there must be a slip somewhere, 

 and sets himself to detect and correct it. AVhen conclusions rest on proba- 

 ble evidence, the reconciling of apparent contradictions is not so simple and 

 certain. It requires the exercise of a calm, unbiassed judgment, capable of 

 looking at both sides of the question ; and oftentimes we have long to sus- 

 pend our decision, and seek for further evidence. JS'onc need fear the efiect 

 of scientific inquiry carried on in an honest, truth-loving, humble spirit, 

 which makes us no less ready frankly to avow our ignorance of what we can- 

 not explain than to accept conclusions based on sound evidence. The slow but 

 sure path of induction is open to us. Let us frame hypotheses if we will : 

 most useful are they when kept in their proper place, as stimulating inquiry. 

 Let us seek to confront them with observation and experiment, thereby con- 

 firming or upsetting them as the result may prove ; but let us beware of pla- 



