448 
Dli. PIIOUT ON CHEMISTRY. 
compared with those from the inorganic kingdom, we may, per¬ 
haps, be able to form some notion of the general principles upon 
which the organic agent operates, and the nature of the influence 
it exerts in the formation of organic products. 
Let us take the same body, sugar, as the subject of illustra¬ 
tion. Sugar, as before observed, is made up of three elements, 
two of which, hydrogen and oxygen, in the simplest state in which 
we are acquainted with them, exist as gases; the other, carbon, 
as a solid. Now, in operating on these elements in mass, as we 
are obliged to do in our experiments, I need not say that we have 
never been able to cause them to combine so as to form sugar; 
but if, instead of operating upon the elements in mass, we were 
enabled to contrive an apparatus so constructed as to exclude all 
foreign agencies, and to bring the particles of each of the ele¬ 
ments together in succession, there can be no doubt, from the na¬ 
tural affinity existing among these particles, that they would com¬ 
bine, and that the result would be the identical substance, sugar, 
the same as it is formed by nature. Now this is exactly the princi¬ 
ple upon which all organic processes are conducted. Nowhere 
do we see the organic agent act upon elementary principles in 
mass, as we are obliged to do in our experiments, but by the me¬ 
dium of a complicated and minute apparatus, which enables it to 
operate, as it were, on the ultimate particles of bodies, and by 
these means to exclude some and to bring others into contact, ac¬ 
cording to the design in view. With respect to the nature of the 
organic agent, this view of the subject leads us to the conclusion, 
that in different instances it is endowed with different degrees of 
power, but that in all cases it must be considered as an ultimate 
principle, endowed by the Creator with a faculty little short of in¬ 
telligence, by means of which it is enabled to construct such a 
mechanism from natural elements, and by the aid of natural 
agencies, as to render it capable of taking further advantage of 
their properties, and of making them subservient to its use. Nor 
does this view of the subject lead to materialism, or otherwise 
derogate from the wisdom and power of the Deity, but, on the 
contrary, is calculated to exalt both in our estimation; for is it 
not more consonant to our notions of infinite wisdom and power to 
suppose that the Deity created agents and materials originally en¬ 
dowed with all the energies and properties we have assigned to 
them, than to suppose that he originally created them imperfect, 
and is every moment obliged, as it were, to perform miracles by 
subverting or extending their natural actions and properties? 
There is yet another advantage resulting from the views here at¬ 
tempted to be established, which I cannot refrain fiom mention¬ 
ing before we quit this part of the subject; namely, that by re- 
