296 
to tell us what is the originating and directing power in these latter pheno- 
mena ? What if they are to be ascribed to the constant working of the 
‘ higher Will,’ both as to the production and direction of these forces, while 
the former include the action of the psyche also ? And even if it be 
admitted, that the hypothesis alluded to in this connexion, — viz., that vital 
force is a transformation of solar energy ‘stored up’ in vegetation, and thence 
transferred to the animal system, — is as true as it appears to me doubtful, 
this would only remove the vivifying power a step or two back, and virtually 
lodge it in the hands of Him who makes the sun to shine. 
“ As to the now fashionable doctrine of the storage of solar energy in food 
and fuel, based, as it appears to be, on the analogy of potential force latent 
in a bent metallic spring, or in a condensed volume of elastic gas, the two 
cases are so different, that they do not admit of comparison. It appears to 
me that according to the theory referred to on the first part of page 282, 
‘ life ’ is a power associated temporarily with matter, superior to physical 
and chemical forces, and controlling them, and not necessarily ceasing to 
exist when separated from matter. This comes very near to the idea of 
a ‘ psychical entity, distinct from matter,’ and approximates closely to Dr. 
Nicholson’s psyche. For while at p. 283 he calls the living being ‘a 
vehicle for the action of the chemical and mechanical forces of the universe,’ 
at p. 290 he speaks of £ mere collocation of materials as being wholly powerless 
to construct definite organisms ; this very collocation being itself the result 
of some directing and unifying power, which we must suppose to be present 
in a greater or less degree in all forms of life.’ 
“ A little further on he considers the hypothesis of an inner directing power 
inevitable, ‘ alike in man and in the Moner.’ These large results, however, 
can hardly be ascribed to the psyche. I think, therefore, we must under- 
stand the Professor as admitting the presence of one Power alike in all 
organisms, viz., that of God. I would add that this would also be a sufficient 
answer to Professor Tyndall’s demand for an agency, under the name of 
‘ formative power.’ The presence of such a power (using the term in its 
concrete rather than its abstract sense), — the presence of such a power does 
not, of course, forbid the exercise of loill on the part of the living beings. 
They are, doubtless, quite compatible, within the limits assigned to the 
psyche by its Maker. 
“ The case of vegetable life is so far simpler than that of animals, that no 
psyche can reasonably be predicated as dwelling in plants ; and yet some- 
thing like it is found there also, which seems, at least, to control the 
chemical and mechanical forces of Nature. But is this a necessary deduc- 
tion ? May it not with equal reason be inferred, that in this department of 
living nature, the only ivill concerned is that of the great Ruling Mind ? 
For the purpose of clothing the earth with plants in all their beauteous 
variety, and providing food for the animal world, that Supreme Will 
forms from dead matter the definite compound we call protoplasm, employing 
iethereal agencies in the construction and development of all their tissues 
and varied products ; and their life or death is the continuance or cessation 
