176 
he truly describes as altogether different from those of the 
gases. Why may I not equally suppose that organization pro- 
ceeds from some ee subtle influence ” working first amidst and 
from the essence of imponderable matter ; and disclosing its 
presence by its effect on the albumen and oil, and whatever else 
may be the first scene of its operations ? Are not the mani- 
festations of electricity as far out of the range of our a 'prion 
conceptions as the latter hypothesis can be ? Who can tell us 
exactly what electricity is, or (except from its effects) what is 
life ? 
8. My next difficulty is a still more serious one. Ihe Pro- 
fessor having thus defined a substance which he teims a 
physical basis or matter of life/ 5 goes on to describe many 
wonderful properties attaching to it. But to look at this 
matter from a chemical point of view, we must first inquire 
what this substance is. Is it one thing, or is it a congeries of 
varying material to which no homogeneous character can be 
ascribed,— and, still less, such attributes imputed as we soon 
find ? A chemist, in order to form an idea of the properties 
of a substance, will sedulously endeavour, if possible, to isolate 
it from other bodies (by crystallization for instance) ; and 
when this has been effected, we have something concerning 
whose molecular changes we can inquire. But if we take an 
eS rg — as this seems to be the easiest mode of looking at that 
protoplasm 55 which we are told has an identity of substance 
in all living being ,— what do we find but a collection of material 
suited for the building-up of the structure of the new creature. 
As we shall see presently, some electrical force soon begins the 
analysis, and carries the albumen to one pole, and the oi y 
particles to another. Professor Huxley tells us that a 
nucleated mass of protoplasm turns out to be what may be 
termed the structural unit of the human body. But ii a 
contractor were to cause to be brought together into one spot 
the whole of the material for building a house, would it be 
reasonable to call his thus furnished yard the structural unit of 
the future edifice? Further, would it be possible to imagine 
that the brick and mortar, the beams and tiles, had combined 
together to draw the plans, and by some molecuiar machinery 
of their own, found power to realize these plans . — a great 
number of parts combining to perform each function, each 
part doing its alloted share of the work with great accuracy 
and efficiency, but being useless for any other purpose, f 
* Lay Sermons, &c., 4th edit., p. 127. 
t Ibid., p. 126. 
