178 
to veil absolute want of sense ; than which nothing is more pre- 
tentious or more imposing; for, as Pope has well said, 
u True, no meaning puzzles more than wit.” 
Of which maxim we may take the following sentence as an 
illustration : — “ These phenomena are due to the properties ot 
the molecular machinery, which has long been known to exist 
in the imaginations of highly-gifted persons; and although as 
yet, no one has succeeded in actually producing such machinery 
artificially, the efforts of the philosophic imagination tend 
towards such a consummation.”* 
13. The strict construction of this sentence would, 1 suppose, 
require us to believe that the ff molecular machinery” exists m 
the imaginations of certain persons, who are thereby enabled to 
become the prophets of the coming age. _ In what respect this 
qualification can differ from that which is called m Scotland 
“ having a bee in one’s bonnet,” I am unable to judge. 
14. The Edinburgh Review (April, 1873) t ^ as wel1 disposed 
of the claims and exposed the presumption of “ the pseudo- 
scientific sect— the sect of the Darwinian evolutionists; and 
the Quarterly Review (Oct., 1873) has given its powerful aid in 
combating the views of Herbert Spencer; my argument is, 
however, not superfluous (as I trust), but simple and defini e, 
aiming to controvert the errors of the same school on one 
special but fundamental point ; and I select from amongst the 
statements of the leaders the following sentence from the toe- 
man whom I deem most worthy of my steel. 
15. “The difference between a crystal of calc spar and 
amorphous carbonate of lime corresponds to the difference 
between living matter and the matter which results from its 
death. Just as by chemical analysis we learn the composition 
of calc spar, so by chemical analysis we ascertain the composition 
of living matter. It is not probable that there is any real dif- 
ference in the nature of the molecular forces which compel the 
carbonate of lime to assume and retain the crystalline form, and 
those which cause the albuminoid matter to move and grow, 
select and form and maintain its particles in a state of incessant 
motion. The property of crystallizing is to crystallizable matter 
what the vital property is to albuminoid matter (protoplasm) . 
The crystalline form corresponds to the organic form, and 
its internal structure to tissue structure. Crystalline force 
* The Mystery of Life, p. 68, quoting from Introductory Lecture on Life, 
&c., British Medical Journal, Oct. 22, 1870. 
t Appendix (A). 
