INTRODUCTION. 19 



in such beings as are fitted and organized to enjoy 

 it, and all the efforts of natural philosophers have 

 never been able to discover matter either organizing 

 itself, or organized by any external cause. Life, 



matter in its inorganized state ? Can it be shown, even grant- 

 ing that bodies become formed in all their parts in a manner 

 analogous to crystallization — from the proportions and properties 

 of the constituent particles— in what manner such bodies may- 

 assume vital functions, if the influence of a superior principle, 

 which shall actuate the already formed machine, be withheld ? 



As the supporters of the doctrine of organism suppose that 

 organization is as much the result of certain proportions and pro- 

 perties of the particles of matter, as crystallization is the effect of 

 those conditions of the constituents of the crystal, it may be asked, 

 — Why are the different kingdoms, classes, genera, &c, of the 

 organized creation preserved by means of generation between dif- 

 ferent sexes, since, if their functions proceed only from the pro- 

 perties with which their material particles are endowed, they may 

 be expected to be perpetuated in the same way as the numerous 

 forms and kinds of inanimate matter, whose phenomena are allowed 

 by all to acknowledge no other source? Why do we not see living 

 animals and plants spring up before us from the numerous combi- 

 nations which the elements of matter composing such bodies are 

 continually assuming, independently of ova, germs, or any species 

 of generation from a living parent or parents ? Why is the organ- 

 ized kingdom of nature alone perpetuated by this process, if its 

 phenomena result merely from the combinations and properties of 

 matter, when no other material combinations require analogous 

 processes for their preservation ? And finally, admitting that the 

 material particles possess, in themselves, the properties which are 

 productive of organization and of life, why do we not see the material 

 particles which compose organized bodies, assume spontaneously — 

 in virtue of such properties, and without a generative process and 

 a regular succession of existence — organized forms and vital actions, 

 when they are altogether present under circumstances favourable 

 to the production of such phenomena ? But the espouser of 

 organism reply to the latter questions, that generation presupposes 

 an organization for the specific purpose, and inorganized matter is, 

 from the circumstance of its being inorganized, devoid of such a 



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