io Life and its Basis. [January, 
are probably only diverse motions excited in it. If, then, 
we admit the hypothesis that this aether is a constituent ele- 
ment in all vegetation, living and dead, we should expedt it 
to be highly susceptible and sensitive to the various motions 
which exist in the external medium, especially that which 
is transfused throughout the atmosphere in which they are 
immersed. 
But still this aether is only a material instrument. It is 
not mind, nor can it be substituted for mind without contra- 
vening the essential distinction between mind and matter. 
I do not doubt that it is the proximate or secondary cause 
of a multitude of processes — vital, chemical, and mechanical 
— in vegetation. It may even be called, with still more pro- 
priety than protoplasm, the “ physical basis of life.” But 
it is only in itself a material creation, and requires mind to 
make use of it. 
Once more : — Much stress is laid in modern scientific 
theories upon the faCt that the “ cause ” of vegetable life is 
evidently an internal and not an external one. And this is 
paraded by some writers as a proof that the Divine Being 
cannot be regarded as the aCtual cause of vitality, because 
they are pleased to regard Him as exclusively external to 
the natural world, and speak of any such diredt adtion upon 
matter as an “ interference ” with “ inflexible law.” The 
idea, however, which I hold in common with many of the 
acutest and profoundest thinkers of our own and past ages, 
is that the Deity is an ever-present and all-pervading 
Spirit, who works in rather than upon matter of every 
kind : though this conception is quite consistent with His 
being said to dwell in Heaven ; for He is equally “ our 
Father which is in Heaven,” as well as everywhere 
else. He is as truly in all material things through- 
out His infinite dominions, as our spirits are within, and 
pervade every part of our bodies. This is not Bruno’s 
Pantheism ; it should rather be termed Emp ante-theism. 
At any rate, I believe it to be the simple truth, and, if fairly 
realised, would tend in no small degree to reconcile scientific 
conclusions with Christian dodtrine and the plain teaching 
of Holy Scripture. 
(To be continued.) 
