238 HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



altogether transcends organic life and sensation.^ A full discus- 

 sion of the grounds of this belief, and of its results, would be 

 out of place in this work ; I intend to endeavour to do justice 

 to the subject in a future one. 

 Intelli- With respect to organizing intelligence and mental intelli- 



gence, gence, the most important chapters of this work consist of an 

 attempt to prove that they are not capable of being resolved into 

 any unintelligent agencies. It would be needless to recapitulate 

 my reasonings on the subject here. 

 Life. But with respect to life, I have somewhat more to say. In 



the chapter on the Chemistry of Life, I have stated my belief 

 that " life, like matter and energy, had its origin in no secondary 

 cause, but in the direct action of creative power;" ^ giving as 

 my principal reason that no merely chemical force appears to be 

 capable of vitalizing matter : matter can be vitalized, and living 

 beings can be produced, only by beings which are already alive ; 

 and no science appears to be able to bring us to the origin of 

 life, any more than to the origin of matter. 



Since the hrst volume of this work has been printed, Pro- 

 fessor Huxley has published the opposite opinion to mine, in an 

 article " On the Physical Basis of Life." ^ In a question of this 

 sort, I must request the reader not to permit Huxley's high 

 authority to influence his conclusion, but to weigh my reasoning 

 against his. 



I quote Huxley's words, italicising some of them : — 

 Quotation " When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a certain propor- 

 Z°^\ tion, and an electric spark is passed through them, they disap- 



pear, and a quantity of water equal to the sum of their weights 

 appears in their place. There is not the slightest parity between 

 the passive and active powers of the water and those of the 

 oxygen and hydrogen which have given rise to it. At 32° 

 Fahr. and far below that temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are 

 elastic gaseous bodies whose particles tend to rush away from 

 one another with great force. Water at the same temperature 

 is a strong though brittle solid, whose particles tend to cohere 

 into definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build up frosty 

 imitations of the most complex forms of vegetable foliage. 

 Nevertheless, we call these and many other strange phenomena 

 the properties of the water ; and we do not hesitate to believe 



1 See Chapter XXII. 2 Yo\. I. p. 89. 



8 Fortnightly Review, Febniary 1869. 



