ORGANIZATION AND LIFE. 
425 
by Napoleonic despotism; but we read with astonishment his 
arguments to prove the strange theory we have announced :— 
All vegetables and animals feel^^ so runs the book, and they 
do this ^Svith or without organs of sensibility; they all 
breathe^ but with different organs of respiration, from the 
plants which have no respiratory apparatus, and certain 
animals that breathe through all their tissues, up to insects 
which respire through tracheal tubes, fish that have gills, and 
birds and mammals that possess lungs."’^ Here is a fact,-*^ 
exclaims our author, ^Svhich proves against those who 
contend that the organ creates the function; and it is 
infinitely more ,true to say that the function creates the 
organ.^’ Whether the animal be a simple polyp or a compli¬ 
cated man, the function is not performed until there is an 
organ to perform it; the difference is that in the higher 
creature an immense advance has been made in the adapta¬ 
tion of a special structure to a special use. 
Even apart from intellectual manifestations, it is clear that 
the living beings do things that are not done by inorganic 
matter; but we are not entitled to ascribe the whole assem¬ 
blage of such acts to a ‘Wital force,^^ or some entity totally 
distinct from any physical force; nor should we say that 
when once life is incarnated in matter, it produces effects 
which in their turn act as causes,^^ and so forth. We can 
trace the circumstances under which an animal lives, but, 
apart from religious ideas, we have not the faintest concep¬ 
tion of why it lives, nor will physical science help us in the 
research. In his great work on ‘Logic,’ John Stuart Mill 
remarks that, although it would be an important addition to 
our knowledge, “if proved, that certain motions in the 
particles of bodies are among the conditions of the production 
of heat or light; that certain assignable physical modifica¬ 
tions of the nerves may be the conditions, not only of our sen¬ 
sations and emotions, but even of our thoughts; that certain 
mechanical and chemical conditions may, in the order of 
nature, be sufficient to determine to action the physiological 
laws of life;” still, “ it must not be supposed that by proving 
these things, one step would be made tow'ards a real explana¬ 
tion of heat, light, or sensation.” In the same spirit. Bacon 
warns us “ not to suffer the understanding to jump and fly 
from particulars to remote and most general axioms (such as 
are termed the principles of arts or things),” and he adds, 
“w’e must not even add wings, but rather lead and ballast, to 
the understanding, to prevent its jumping or flying, which 
has not yet been done; but whenever this takes place w e 
may entertain greater hopes of the sciences.” Had M. 
