48 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
been formed artificially is one which, so far as we know, simply depends 
upon the amount of our knowledge, and is continually changing as new 
processes are discovered, we are led to extend the same n to the 
various chemical substances of which organic structures are m 
B o the laws of chemical affinity, to which, as I have óptimo: to 
infer, living beings, whether vegetable or animal, are in absolute subjec- 
tion, together with those of capillary attraction, of diffusion, etc., account 
for the formation of an organic structure, as distinguished from the elab- 
oration of the chemical substances of which it is composed? No more, it 
seems to me, than the laws of motion account for the union of oxygen 
and hydrogen to form — though the ager re matter so a is 
subject to the laws of motion during the act of union just as well as 
before and after. In the various processes of MM of precipi- 
tation, etc., which we witness in dead matter, I cannot see the faintest 
and perpetuation of even the lowliest plant. Admitting to the full as 
highly probable, though not completely i ey the applicability to 
living beings of the laws which have been ascertained with reference to 
dead matter, I feel constrained, at the same time, to admit the existence 
of a mysterious something lying beyond—a something sut generjs, which 
I regard, 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 Pe causation may 
yet remain behind; we know not how few. It would be presumptuous 
indeed to assume in any case that we had si reached the last link, 
and to charge with fex a fellow-worker who attempted to push 
his re yet one step farther back. On the other hand, if a 
thick darkness enshrouds all beyond, we have no right to assume it to be 
impossible that we should have reached even the last link of the chain; a 
stage where farther dii de is unattainable, and we can only refer the 
highest law at whieh we stopped to the flat of an Almighty Power. To 
assume the contrary as a matter of scope is practically to remove the 
first cause of all to an infinite distance from us. The boundary, how 
ever, between what is clearly known and what is veiled in ipee 
darkness is not ordinarily thus sharply deflned. Between the two there 
lies a misty region, in which loom the ill-discerned forms of links of the 
chain which are yet beyond us. 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 
second causes we forget not the flrst cause, nor shut our eyes to the 
wonderful proofs of design which, in the study of organized beings es- 
pecially, meet us at every turn. — President Stokes Address to the British 
Association. SCIENTIFIC OPINION. 
eee ee ee 
niia 
