UNSEEN LIFE OF OUR WOKLD AND OF LIVING GFvOWTII. 115 



or modes of matter and motion, sui generis or varioushj 

 modified " ! 



But does not the geological record prove that througli infinite 

 past time — farther, much farther back, than the imagination or 

 reason, at this time with the aid of all human knowledge, can 

 penetrate, countless living things grew and multiplied in air and 

 water, and lived and died according to the general principles 

 which prevail in the existing life-world of to-day, in whicli man 

 occupies the highest position, and is and has been, playing the 

 most conspicuous part, though but during a comparatively short 

 period of the incalculable time that has elapsed since the 

 beginning of life ? 



Is it not of surpassing interest to reflect that all this very 

 ancient unseen life-power, the effects and mode of operation of 

 which, have only so very recently been revealed to us, by the 

 wonders of the structual results of vital growth, do not essen- 

 tially differ even in minute particulars, from the effects of the 

 life-power and the living growth of existing living forms, and 

 that there is no evidence to lead us to suppose that the 

 principles by which our whole living world is now governed, 

 have not been in operation from the very beginning ? 



Although ancient life-forms have been supplanted by many 

 generations of new organisms and new types, living and growing 

 under very different external conditions, their derivation from, 

 and origin in, structureless living matter, the development and 

 formation of their tissues and organs, the general arrangement 

 and action of their nerves and nerve-centres, the contraction of 

 their muscles, the circulation of their blood and other fluids, and 

 even the development, nutrition and action of their sense organs, 

 were conducted in those early days according to the vital 

 principles governing things now living. Indeed, vital action 

 generally, seems to have been designed, created and carried out 

 in primeval times and to have been governed and sustained by 

 life power, like that which is in operation in the living organisms 

 of to-day. In short, vital action characteristic of all life, simple 

 and complex, past and present, seems to have continued without 

 interruption or change in principle, from the very beginning, 

 up to the present hour. Will any one from the science side, 

 venture to suggest a limit to or change in, the design and 

 power of Providence ? 



Facts of observation distinctly prove that life is, and has ever 

 been, absolutely different and separate from all forces and 

 properties of ordinary matter, and that the realm of life has ever 

 been absolutely distinct from the realm of matter. Who shall 



