THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 2 
“I 
machines containing within an envelope many such small 
machines, the combined effects of which give the necessary 
electro-magnetic and electro-chemical forces to produce 
motion, and the other phenomena characteristic of living 
things, aided by various stimuli, such as heat, etc. The 
whole being material motion; but motion at various speeds 
and in many ways. 
The electrician forms a battery by putting a plate of 
copper and a plate of zinc into a suitable fluid, and electro- 
chemical results follow. When he withdraws the fluid from 
the cell the results apparently cease. It is the speed of 
movement, and arrangement, of the portions of matter in 
the copper, zinc, and the fluid that produces the electro- 
chemical effects. Nature, like the electrician, puts her 
positive and negative materials within her living cells, that 
she has formed by enveloping the materials in some species 
of envelope, and adds a suitable fluid, electro-chemical results 
follow. When by the operations of nature the fluid is 
withdrawn, the results apparently cease, and the cell or cells 
(or seeds) appear lifeless; but when she again supplies the 
suitable fluid under suitable conditions they again give the 
electro-cbemical phenomena of life, unless they have been 
left long without fluid, and the molecular clockwork has, 
while without the fluid, ran down below the energy, or speed 
of movement, necessary to the manifestation of electro- 
chemical effects when the fluid is again added. 
It is evident that it is only necessary for a cell in inanimate 
nature, that contains the necessary materials, having the 
needful energy, within an insulating envelope, to be supplied 
with the suitable fluid for the phenomena of life to be mani- 
fested. How simple after all is the origin of life, the difficulty 
has been in our want of understanding. It may be a little 
difficult at first glance to see in all its fulness and beauty ; 
