165 
scientists disagree ? Bat it is certainly pertinent to say that 
such disagreements should make philosophers modest and 
cautious.” 
The results of philosophy and of scientific teaching in regard 
to all that concerns the mystery of life being thus unsatis- 
factory, what is it that we are taught by this circumstance ? Is 
it not that the ways of that Great Power by and through which 
all created beings and things were brought into existence, and 
are maintained during their allotted span, are past finding out 
— by man, at least. Are we, then, to cease our investigation 
of Nature and Nature’s works ? By no means. On the con- 
trary, let us investigate them by every lawful and legitimate 
means that are now or may become available ; bearing in mind 
the while that 
“ Knowledge is as food, and needs no less 
Her temperance over appetite ; ” * 
and as we proceed in our investigation we shall find newer 
and still newer causes to admire and wonder. But, as to the 
Ultimate Power upon which those manifestations, and many 
others that are beyond our ken, depend, we may apply expres- 
sion after expression in the vain hope of deceiving ourselves 
as to its mysterious nature save through the eye of faith, — 
and still that Power itself remain inscrutable. 
One of the most eminent physiologists of the present day, 
and certainly one of the most highly respected, writes these 
words f : — “ To imagine, then, that everything is gained by 
the interposition of ‘agents,’ intelligent or non-intelligent, 
between the Deity and the materials upon which He operates, 
is either to set limits to His knowledge and power, or to give 
to these agents an office purely nominal.” No reflecting mind 
has any doubt that this earth and its inhabitants form a sys- 
tem, of which every part is perfectly adapted to the rest, and 
of which all the actions and changes, however independent, 
or even contrary, have one common tendency, the ultimate 
happiness of the creatures of Infinite Benevolence. 
And finally, having regard to all that has now been said 
on the subject of life , how apt the remarks with which 
a living physician J brings his interesting work to an 
end : — “ Generation after generation still sends forth new 
speculators — ardent, sanguine, and undiscouraged by the 
* Milton, Paradise Lost , book vii. 
t Physiology , General and Comparative . By Dr. W. B. Carpenter. 1857, 
p. 23. 
X Fothergill, Therapeutics , p. 637. 
VOL. XVII. tf 
