240 . HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, has the power of organizing 

 itself ; and in order to make the parallel a valid one, the brass 

 and steel that compose the watch ought to have the power of 

 putting themselves together, which they have not. If, then, the 

 case of an organism is really analogous to that of a watch, a 

 being who understood an organism as well as we understand a 

 watch would be able to perceive that it has been organized by a 

 power — namely life or intelligence — which is as totally unlike 

 the properties of the mere chemical elements as the skill of 

 the watchmaker is unlike the properties of brass and steel. 



Huxley's argument about " aquosity " is less easy to answer. 

 But I think the suggested analogy between the effect of the 

 electric spark in producing water out of its elements, and the 

 effect of " pre-existing living protoplasm " in vitalizing the sub- 

 stances of the food, is altogether unsound. The only effect of 

 the electric spark in the formation of water is probably to pro- 

 duce heat, and the effect of heat is to enable the constituents of 

 the water to combine according to their spontaneous affinities ; 

 but when the substance of food is vitalized by the action of 

 previously vitalized matter, or when vitalized matter assumes 

 organic structure, I see no proof nor probability that this is due 

 to any sjjontaneous tendency of matter. 



THE END. 



LONDON : R. CLAT, SONS, AND TAYI.On, PRINTKnS. 



