296 HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. [cHAr. 



functions, as in nutrition, circulation, and respiration ; and 

 life and intelligence are most discernible in the formation 

 and in the action of the organs of sense and of thought. 

 Nutrition, circulation, and respiration are in a great degree 

 to be explained as results of physical and chemical laws ; 

 and I believe that, as I shall endeavour to show, the origin 

 of the organs in which those functions are carried on may 

 be in some degree explained by the operation of those 

 same laws. But sensation, percej)tion, and thought cannot 

 be so explained. They belong exclusively to life ; and, 

 similarly, the organs of those functions — the nerves, 

 the brain, the eye, and the ear — can have originated, 

 I believe, only by the action of an Organizing Intel- 

 ligence. 

 The laws I believe intelligence to be a concomitant of all life, 

 of habit -^^^ J ^Q j^o^ ^i^i^]. ^i-^at aU the laws of life are to be 



are not in- 

 telligent, referred to vital intelligence. The laws of Habit are 



purely vital laws, but I do not see any element of 

 intelligence in them. 



I have now to explain in what way I think that some 

 of the simpler of the formative processes of organization 

 may be accounted for by the action of inorganic forces 

 on vitalized matter. What follows on the origin of 

 cellular tissue, of circulatory vessels, and of respiratory 

 organs, is all suggested by the second volume of Herbert 

 Spencer's "Principles of Biology," and is mostly taken 

 from it. 



We have seen that in most cases, though not in all, the 

 first product of organization is the cell. Many of the 

 lowest Algfe consist of but a single cell, and the embryo of 

 the higher plants and animals before they begin to assume 

 any distinctive form consist of cellular tissue. A very pro- 

 Formation bable cause of the first formation of cells is that various 

 tissue"^^' influences from without acting on a minute mass of vital- 

 ized but unorganized matter, determine a slight hardening 

 of the surface. The exact nature of the action is probably 

 undiscoverable ; but all I wish to insist on is, that it must 

 be due to some agency that acts differently on the inside 

 and on the outside of the mass of germinal matter. By 



