Organization and Life. 187 



furnace of the locomotive. The power of resisting heat is 

 equally physical, resulting from evaporation and other processes 

 which experimental science can trace. When the body is dead, 

 the amount and direction of the forces is altered, and then, of 

 course, the changes that ensue are of a different kind. It is 

 incorrect to say that no change has taken place except the 

 escape or departure of an immaterial principle. The nerves no 

 longer transmit, nor do the nerve centres generate, those physical 

 forces that determine the actions of structure that is alive. Mr. 

 Lionel Beale discovers a complete circuit in the nervous system, 

 strengthening the analogy with phenomena of an electrical kind. 

 Other physiologists trace a connection between the consumption 

 of phosphorus and the amount of thought performed by the 

 brain. Here we have two sorts of incidents, the connection 

 of which no physical investigation can elucidate. The changes in 

 the brain, and in the secretions, no doubt, follow chemical and 

 other physical laws, and are simply the results of the direction 

 and intensity of forces of the same character as those which 

 preside over the material world. They thus form fitting sub- 

 jects for the research of the physiologist. But when we arrive 

 at the question of why thought is connected with a brain, and 

 why changes in the condition of that brain precede or accom- 

 pany mental manifestations, our inquiry belongs to a totally 

 different sphere. No polarization of particles, or oxidation of 

 phosphorus can help us here. The ultimate cause is the will 

 of Deity ; and if we seek for more we must do so in the direc- 

 tion of utility, and correspondence with that great scheme of 

 creation, of which so small a part is unfolded to our gaze. 



Let physical science give up the search for the why, and tell 

 us how the universe proceeds. We start, and we conclude, 

 with the conviction that an Intelligent and Benevolent Will is 

 in all and over all, and in tracing the wonderful operation of 

 what we call secondary causes, we exalt our conceptions of the 

 only real Cause that animates and guides the mighty whole. 



