40 LECTURE I. 



mon matter of the universe ? What but 

 that which Mr. Hunter drew, that life must 

 be something independent of organization, 

 since it is able to execute the same func- 

 tions with such diversified structure, and 

 even in some instances with scarcely any 

 appearance of organization at all ? 



The experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy 

 seem to me to form an important link in 

 the connexion of our knowledge of dead 

 and living matter. He has solved the 

 great and long-hidden mystery of che- 

 mical attraction, by showing that it de- 

 pends upon the electric properties which 

 the atoms of different species of matter 

 possess. Nay, by giving to an alkali elec- 

 tric properties which did not originally 

 belong to it, he has been able to control 

 the ordinary operations of nature, and to 

 make potash pass through a strong acid, 

 without any combination taking place. 

 That electricity is something, I could 

 never doubt ; and, therefore, it follows as 

 a consequence, in my opinion, that it 

 must be every where connected with 



