Miscellaneous Intelligence. 439 
of diffusion, and so forth, account for the formation of an organic 
structure, as distinguished from the elaboration of the chemical 
substances of which it is composed ? o more, it seems to me, 
than the laws of motion account for the union of oxygen and hy- 
5 
gard, not as balancing and suspending the ordinary 
physical laws, but as working with them and through them to the 
attainment of a designed end. 
“ What this something which we call life may be is a profound 
mystery. We know not how many links in the chain of seconda- 
ry causation may yet remain behind; we know not how few. It 
would be presumptuous indeed to assume in any vase that we had 
already reached the last link, and to charge with irreverence a fel- 
should have reached even the last link of the chain; a stage where 
further progress is unattainable, and we can only refer the highest 
law at which we stopped to the fiat of an Almighty Power. To 
assume the contrary as a matter of necessity 1s, practically, to re- 
move the First Cause of all to an infinite distance from us. The 
boundary, however, between what is clearly known and what is 
. 
veiled in impenetrable darkness is not ordinarily, thus sha 1 
fined. Between the two there lies a misty region, in which loom 
the ill-discerned forms of links of the chain which are yet beyond 
s. But the general principle is not affected thereby. Let us 
fearlessly trace the dependence of link on link as far as it may be 
given us to trace it, but let us take heed that in thus studying sec- 
try and molecular attractions, or as the laws of chemical affinity 
in their turn transcend those of mere mechanics. Science can be 
expected to do but little to aid us here, since the instrument of 
