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diff --git a/24346-8.txt b/24346-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9fc114 --- /dev/null +++ b/24346-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2938 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hints towards the formation of a more +comprehensive theory of life. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Hints towards the formation of a more comprehensive theory of life. + +Author: Samuel Taylor Coleridge + +Release Date: January 17, 2008 [Ebook #24346] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS TOWARDS THE FORMATION OF A MORE COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF LIFE.*** + + + + + + *Hints Towards the Formation of a More Comprehensive Theory Of Life* + + *by S. T. Coleridge* + + *Edited by Seth B. Watson, M.D.* + + Of St. John's College, + + And Formerly One of the Physicians to the Hospital at Oxford + + Magna sunt opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus. + + London: John Churchill, Princes Street, Soho + + MDCCCXLVIII. + + *C. and J. Adlard, Printers, Bartholomew Close* + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Preface. +Physiology Of Life. +The Nature Of Life. +Advertisements. +Footnotes + + + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + +The Editor takes this opportunity of returning his best acknowledgments to +Sir JOHN STODDART, LL.D., to the Rev. JAMES GILLMAN, Incumbent of Trinity, +Lambeth, and to HENRY LEE, Esq., Assistant Surgeon to King's College +Hospital, for their great kindness, in regard to this publication. + +_16, Norfolk Street, Park Lane._ + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The accompanying pages contain the unfinished Sketch of a Theory of Life +by S. T. Coleridge. Everything that fell from the pen of that +extraordinary man bore latent, as well as more obvious indications of +genius, and of its inseparable concomitant--originality. To this general +remark the present Essay is far from forming an exception. No one can +peruse it, without admiring the author's comprehensive research and +profound meditation; but at the same time, partly from the exuberance of +his imagination, and partly from an apparent want of method (though, in +truth, he had a method of his own, by which he marshalled his thoughts in +an order perfectly intelligible to himself), a first perusal will, to many +readers, prove unsatisfactory, unless they are prepared for it by an +introduction of a more popular character. This purpose, therefore, I shall +endeavour to accomplish; it being to be understood that I by no means make +myself responsible either for Mr. Coleridge's speculations, or for the +manner in which they are enunciated; and that, on the contrary, I shall +occasionally indicate views from which I dissent, and expressions which +perhaps the author himself, on revision, would have seen reason to +correct. + +It is clear that Mr. Coleridge considers the unity of human nature to +result from two combined elements, Body and Soul; that he regards the +latter as the principle of Reason and of Conscience (both which he has +largely treated in his published works), and that the "Life," which he +here investigates, concerns, in relation to mankind, only the Body. He is +far, however, from confining the term "Life" to its action on the human +body; on the contrary, he disclaims the division of all that surrounds us +into things with life, and things without life; and contends, that the +term Life is no less applicable to the irreducible _bases_ of chemistry, +such as sodium, potassium, &c., or to the various forms of crystals, or +the geological strata which compose the crust of our globe, than it is to +the human body itself, the acme and perfection of animal organization. I +admit that there are certain great powers, such as magnetism, electricity, +and chemistry, whose action may be traced, even by the limited means which +science at present possesses, in admirable gradation, from purely +unorganized to the most highly organized matter: and, I think, that Mr. +Coleridge has done this with great ingenuity and striking effect; but what +I object to is, that he applies to the combined operation of these powers, +in all cases, the term _Life_. If we look back to the early history of +language, we shall probably find that this word, and its synonymes in +other tongues, were first employed to denote _human_ life, that is, the +duration of a human being's existence from birth to the grave. As this +existence was marked by actions, many of which were common to man with +other animals, those animals also were said to "live;" but the extension +of the notion of Life to the vegetable creation is comparatively a recent +usage,--and hitherto (in this country at least) no writer before Mr. +Coleridge, so far as I know, has maintained that rocks and mountains, nay, +"the great globe itself," share with mankind the gift of Life. On the +other hand, there are well known and energetic uses of the word "Life," to +which Mr. Coleridge's speculations, as contained in the accompanying +pages, are wholly inapplicable. Almost all nations, even the most savage, +agree in the belief that individuals of the human race, after they have +ceased to exist in this mortal life, will exist in another state, to which +also the word Life is universally applied; but to this latter Mr. +Coleridge's views of magnetism, electricity, &c., can hardly be thought +applicable. Still less can they apply to "Life" in its spiritual sense; +as, when Moses says to the Jews, "the words of the law are your _life_," +(Deut. xxxii, 47,) and when our Saviour says, "the words that I speak unto +you, they are spirit, and they are _life_;" (John, vi, 63;) and again, "I +am the resurrection and the life," (John, xi, 25.) Upon the whole, +therefore, I think it would have been advisable in Mr. Coleridge to have +adopted a different phraseology, in tracing the operation of certain +natural agencies first on unorganized, and then on organized bodies. + +Another word, of which I consider an improper use to be made in this +Essay, is "Nature." I find this imaginary being introduced on all +occasions, and invested with attributes of personality, which may be +extremely apt to make a false impression on young or thoughtless minds. At +one time, "the life of Nature" is spoken of; then we are informed that +"Nature has succeeded. _She_ has created the intermediate link between the +vegetable world and the animal." Again, it is said that "Nature seems to +fall back, and to reexert _herself_ on the lower ground, which _she_ had +before occupied;"--and elsewhere we are told that "Nature never loses what +_she_ has once learnt; though in the acquirement of each new power _she_ +intermits or performs less energetically the act immediately preceding. +_She_ often drops a faculty, but never fails to pick it up again. _She_ +may seem forgetful and absent; but it is only to recollect _herself_ with +additional as well as recruited vigour in some after and higher state." +Now the word "Nature," in any intelligible sense, means nothing but that +method and order by which the Almighty regulates the common course of +things. Nature is not a person; it is not active; it neither creates nor +performs actions more or less energetically, nor learns, nor forgets, nor +reexerts itself, nor recruits its vigour. Perhaps it will be said that all +this is merely figurative language. Figurative language is very much +misplaced in strict philosophical investigations; and these particular +figures, which might be quite consistent with the atheistical philosophy +of Lucretius, sound ill in the mouth of a pious Christian, which Mr. +Coleridge undoubtedly was. He probably adopted them unconsciously from +Bacon; but Bacon's use of the word Nature ought rather to have served as a +warning than an example; for it has contributed, in no small degree, to +the atheistical philosophy of recent times. + +The prevalent natural philosophy of the present day is that which is +called _corpuscular_, because it assumes the existence of a first matter, +consisting of _corpuscula_ or atoms, which are supposed to be definite, +though extremely small, _quantities_, invested with the _qualities_ of +extension, impenetrability, and the like; and from certain combinations of +these qualities, Life is considered, by some persons, to be a necessary +result. This philosophy Mr. Coleridge combats. The supposed atoms, he +says, are mere abstractions of the mind; and Life is not a thing, the +result of atomic arrangement or action, but is itself an act, or process. +He refutes various definitions of Life, such as, that it is the sum of all +the functions by which death is resisted; or, that it depends on the +faculty of nutrition, or of anti-putrescence. His own definition he +proposes merely as an hypothesis. Life, he says, is "the principle of +Individuation," that is to say, it is a power which discloses itself from +within, combining many qualities into one individual thing. This +individualising principle unites, as he conceives, with the cooperating +action of magnetism, electricity, and chemistry. At least, such is the +inference to be drawn from the present state of science; though it is +easily conceivable that future discoveries may bring us acquainted with +powers more directly connected with Life. The most general law governing +the action of Life, as a tendency to individuation, is here designated +_polarity_; for instance, the power termed magnetism (not meaning that +there is necessarily an actual tangible magnet in the case) has two poles, +the negative, answering to attraction, rest, carbon, &c., and the +positive, answering to repulsion, mobility, azote, &c.; and as the +magnetic needle which points to the north necessarily indicates thereby +the south, so the power disposing to rest has necessarily a counteracting +influence disposing to mobility, between which lies the point of +indifference. Now this quality, to which Mr. Coleridge gives the name of +polarity, is in truth nothing more than an exemplification of the doctrine +of opposites, the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND VARIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, which the Eleatic +Philosopher, in Plato's "Sophist," applies to the idea of existence and +non-existence, and which accompanies every other idea as its shadow, +whether in physics, in intellect, or in morals; for the finite is opposed +to the infinite, the false to the true, the evil to the good, and so +forth; which we say, not to derogate from the value of Mr. Coleridge's +application of the doctrine, of which he has very ably availed himself; +but merely to explain the term polarity, by referring it, as a species, to +a higher genus of intellectual conceptions. + +Reverting to the three powers before mentioned, it is not to be +understood, that on Mr. Coleridge's hypothesis of Life, they ever act +separately; but in the different modifications of Life, at one time the +power of magnetism predominates, at another that of electricity, and at +another that of chemistry. Magnetism is stated to act as a line, +electricity as a surface, and chemistry as a solid; for all which Mr. +Coleridge refers to certain physical experiments. The predominance of +magnetism is characterised by reproduction, that of electricity by +irritability; and irritability, which first appears as muscle, gradually +rises into sensibility as nerve. The limits of a mere introduction will +not permit me to examine Mr. Coleridge's first principles more in detail; +and I can but briefly notice their application to the successive stages of +ascent, from the first rudiments of individualised Life, in the lowest +classes of the mineral, vegetable, and animal creation, to its crown and +consummation in the human body. Beginning with magnetism, by which, in its +widest sense, he means what he improperly calls the first and simplest +differential act of _Nature_ (he should rather have said the first and +simplest conception that we can form of a differential act of God, in the +work of creation), he supposes the pre-existence of chaos, not, indeed, in +the Miltonic sense-- + +"For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce, +Strive _there_ for mast'ry, and to battle bring +Their embryon atoms,--" + +but rather as one vast homogeneous fluid, and even _that_ he suggests not +as a historical fact, but as the appropriate symbol of a great fundamental +truth. The first effort of magnetic power, the first step from +indifference to difference, from formless homogeneity to independent +existence, is seen in the tranquil deposition of crystals; and an +increasing tendency to difference is observable in the increasing +multitude of strata, till we come to organic life; of which the vegetable +and animal worlds may be regarded as opposite poles; carbon prevailing in +the former and azote in the latter; and vegetation being characterised by +the predominance of magnetism in its highest power, as reproduction; +whilst the animal tribes evince the power of electricity, as shown in +irritability and sensibility. Passing over the forms of vegetation, we +come to the polypi, corallines, &c., in which individuality appears in its +first dawn; for a multitude of animals form, as it were, a common animal, +and different genera pass into each other, almost indistinguishably. The +tubipora of the corals connects with the serpula of the conchylia. In the +_mollusca_ the separation of organs becomes more observable; in the higher +species there are rudiments of nerves, and an exponent, though scarcely +distinguishable, of sensibility. In the snail, and muscle, the separation +of the fluid from the solid is more marked, yet the prevalence of the +carbonic principle connects these and the preceding classes, in a certain +degree, with the vegetable creation. "But the _insect_ world, taken at +large (says Mr. Coleridge) appears as an intense _Life_, that has +struggled itself loose, and become emancipated from vegetation--_Floræ +liberti, et libertini_!" In insects we first find the distinct +commencement of a separation between the muscular system, that is, organs +of irritability, and the nervous system, that is, organs of sensibility; +the former, however, maintaining a pre-eminence throughout, and the nerves +themselves being probably subservient to the motory power. With the fishes +begins an internal system of bones, but these are the results of a +comparatively imperfect formation, being in general little more than mere +gristle. In birds we find a sort of synthesis of the powers of fish and +insects. In all three, the powers are under the predominance of +irritability; but sensibility, which is dormant in the insect, begins to +awaken in the fish, and, though still subordinate, is quite awake in the +bird, of which no better proof can be given than its power of sound, with +the rudiments of modulation, in the large class of singing birds, and in +some others a tendency to acquire and to imitate articulate speech. The +next step of ascent brings us to the _mammalia_; and in these, including +beasts and men, the complete and universal presence of a nervous system +raises sensibility to its due place and rank among the animal powers. +Finally, in Man the whole force of organic power attains an inward and +centripetal direction, and the "apex of the living pyramid"becomes a fit +receptacle for Reason and Conscience. + + * * * * * + +It is much to be regretted, that the estimable Author did not live to put +a finishing hand to this Essay; but the part completed involves +speculations of so interesting a nature, and presents such striking marks +of deep and original thought, that the Editor, to whose hands it was +committed, did not feel himself justified in withholding it from the +judgment of the public. + + + + + +PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE. + + + Introduction. + + +When we stand before the bust of John Hunter, or as we enter the +magnificent museum furnished by his labours, and pass slowly, with +meditative observation, through this august temple, which the genius of +one great man has raised and dedicated to the wisdom and uniform working +of the Creator, we perceive at every step the guidance, we had almost +said, the inspiration, of those profound ideas concerning Life, which dawn +upon us, indeed, through his written works, but which he has here +presented to us in a more perfect language than that of words--the language +of God himself, as uttered by Nature. + +That the true idea of Life existed in the mind of John Hunter I do not +entertain the least doubt; but it may, perhaps, be doubted whether his +incessant occupation, and his stupendous industry in the service, both of +his contemporaries and of posterity, added to his comparatively slight +acquaintance with the arts and aids of logical arrangement, permitted him +fully to unfold and arrange it in distinct, clear, and communicable +conceptions. Assuredly, however, I may, without incurring the charge of +arrogance or detraction, venture to assert that, in his writings the light +which occasionally flashes upon us seems at other times, and more +frequently, to struggle through an unfriendly medium, and even sometimes +to suffer a temporary occultation. At least, in order to dissipate the +undeniable obscurities, and to reconcile the apparent contradictions found +in his works,--to distinguish, in short, the numerous passages in which +without, perhaps, losing sight internally of his own peculiar belief, he +yet falls into the phraseology and mechanical solutions of his age,--we +must distinguish such passages from those in which the form corresponds to +the substance, and in which, therefore, the nature and essential laws of +vital action are expressed, as far as his researches had unveiled them to +his own mind, without disguise. To effect this, we must, as it were, climb +up on his shoulders, and look at the same objects in a distincter form, +because seen from the more commanding point of view furnished by himself. +This has, indeed, been more than once attempted already, and, in one +instance, with so evident a display of power and insight as announces in +the assertor and vindicator of the Hunterian Theory a congenial intellect, +and a disciple in whom Hunter himself would have exulted. Would that this +attempt had been made on a larger scale, that the writer to whom I +refer(1) had in consequence developed his opinions systematically, and +carried them yet further back, even to their ultimate principle! + +But this the scientific world has yet to expect; or it is more than +probable that the present humble endeavour would have been superseded, or +confined, at least, to the task of restating the opinion of my predecessor +with such modifications as the differences that will always exist between +men who have thought independently, and each for himself, have never +failed to introduce, even on problems of far easier and more obvious +solution. + +Without further preface or apology, therefore, I shall state at once my +objections to all the definitions that have hitherto been given of Life, +as meaning too much or too little, with an exception, however, in favour +of those which mean nothing at all; and even these last must, in certain +cases, receive an honour they do not merit, and be confuted, or rather +detected, on account of their too general acceptance, and the incalculable +power of words over the minds of men in proportion to the remoteness of +the subject from the cognizance of the senses. + +It would be equally presumptuous and unreasonable should I, with a late +writer on this subject, "exhort the reader to be particularly on his guard +against loose and indefinite expressions;" but I perfectly agree that they +are the bane of all science, and have been remarkably injurious in the +different departments of physiology. + + + + + +THE NATURE OF LIFE. + + + On The Definitions Of Life Hitherto Received. Hints Towards A More + Comprehensive Theory. + + +The attempts to explain the nature of Life, which have fallen within my +knowledge, presuppose the arbitrary division of all that surrounds us into +things with life, and things without life--a division grounded on a mere +assumption. At the best, it can be regarded only as a hasty deduction from +the first superficial notices of the objects that surround us, sufficient, +perhaps, for the purpose of ordinary discrimination, but far too +indeterminate and diffluent to be taken unexamined by the philosophic +inquirer. The positions of science must be tried in the jeweller's scales, +not like the mixed commodities of the market, on the weigh-bridge of +common opinion and vulgar usage. Such, however, has been the procedure in +the present instance, and the result has been answerable to the coarseness +of the process. By a comprisal of the _petitio principii_ with the +_argumentum in circulo_,--in plain English, by an easy logic, which begins +with begging the question, and then moving in a circle, comes round to the +point where it began,--each of the two divisions has been made to define +the other by a mere reassertion of their assumed contrariety. The +physiologist has luminously explained Y plus X by informing us that it is +a somewhat that is the antithesis of Y minus X; and if we ask, what then +is Y-X? the answer is, the antithesis of Y+X,--a reciprocation of great +service, that may remind us of the twin sisters in the fable of the Lamiæ, +with but one eye between them both, which each borrowed from the other as +either happened to want it; but with this additional disadvantage, that in +the present case it is after all but an eye of glass. The definitions +themselves will best illustrate our meaning. I will begin with that given +by Bichat. "Life is the sum of all the functions by which death is +resisted," in which I have in vain endeavoured to discover any other +meaning than that life consists in being able to live. This author, with a +whimsical gravity, prefaces his definition with the remark, that the +nature of life has hitherto been sought for in _abstract_ considerations; +as if it were possible that four more inveterate abstractions could be +brought together in one sentence than are here assembled in the words, +life, death, function, and resistance. Similar instances might be cited +from Richerand and others. The word Life is translated into other more +learned words; and this _paraphrase_ of the _term_ is substituted for the +_definition_ of the _thing_, and therefore (as is always the case in every +_real_ definition as contra-distinguished from a _verbal_ definition,) for +at least a partial _solution_ of the _fact_. Such as these form the +_first_ class.--The second class takes some one particular function of Life +common to all living objects,--nutrition, for instance; or, to adopt the +phrase most in vogue at present, assimilation, for the purposes of +reproduction and growth. Now this, it is evident, can be an appropriate +definition only of the very lowest species, as of a Fungus or a Mollusca; +and just as comprehensive an idea of the mystery of Life, as a Mollusca +might give, can this definition afford. But this is not the only +objection. For, _first_, it is not pretended that we begin with seeking +for an organ evidently appropriated to nutrition, and then infer that the +substance in which such an organ is found _lives_. On the contrary, in a +number of cases among the obscurer animals and vegetables we infer the +organ from the pre-established fact of its life. _Secondly_, it identifies +the process itself with a certain range of its forms, those, namely, by +which it is manifested in animals and vegetables. For this, too, no less +than the former, presupposes the arbitrary division of all things into not +living and lifeless, on which, as I before observed, all these definitions +are grounded. But it is sorry logic to take the proof of an affirmative in +one thing as the proof of the negative in another. All animals that have +lungs breathe, but it would be a childish oversight to deduce the +converse, viz. all animals that breathe have lungs. The theory in which +the French chemists organized the discoveries of Black, Cavendish, +Priestly, Scheele, and other English and German philosophers, is still, +indeed, the reigning theory, but rather, it should seem, from the absence +of a rival sufficiently popular to fill the throne in its stead, than from +the continuance of an implicit belief in its own stability. We no longer +at least cherish that intensity of faith which, before Davy commenced his +brilliant career, had not only identified it with chemistry itself, but +had substituted its nomenclature, even in common conversation, for the far +more philosophic language which the human race had abstracted from the +laboratory of Nature. I may venture to prophecy that no future Beddoes +will make it the corival of the mathematical sciences in demonstrative +evidence. I think it a matter of doubt whether, during the period of its +supposed infallibility, physiology derived more benefit from the +extension, or injury from the misdirection, of its views. Enough of the +latter is fresh in recollection to make it but an equivocal compliment to +a physiological position, that it must stand or fall with the corpuscular +philosophy, as modified by the French theory of chemistry. Yet should it +happen (and the event is not impossible, nor the supposition altogether +absurd,) that more and more decisive facts should present themselves in +confirmation of the metamorphosis of elements, the position that life +consists in assimilation would either cease to be distinctive, or fall +back into the former class as an identical proposition, namely, that Life, +meaning by the word that sort of growth which takes place by means of a +peculiar organization, consists in that sort of growth which is peculiar +to organized life. _Thirdly_, the definition involves a still more +egregious flaw in the reasoning, namely, that of _cum hoc, ergo propter +hoc_ (or the assumption of causation from mere coexistence); and this, +too, in its very worst form. For it is not _cum hoc solo, ergo propter +hoc_, which would in many cases supply a presumptive proof by induction, +but _cum hoc, et plurimis aliis, ergo propter hoc_! Shell, of some kind or +other, is common to the whole order of testacea, but it would be absurd to +define the _vis vitæ_ of testaceous animals as existing in the shell, +though we know it to be the constant accompaniment, and have every reason +to believe the constant effect, of the specific life that acts in those +animals. Were we (_argumenti __ causá_) to imagine shell coextensive with +the organized creation, this would produce no abatement in the falsity of +the reasoning. Nor does the flaw stop here; for a physiological, that is a +real, definition, as distinguished from the verbal definitions of +lexicography, must consist neither in any single property or function of +the thing to be defined, nor yet in all collectively, which latter, +indeed, would be a history, not a definition. It must consist, therefore, +in the _law_ of the thing, or in such an _idea_ of it, as, being admitted, +all the properties and functions are admitted by implication. It must +likewise be so far _causal_, that a full insight having been obtained of +the law, we derive from it a progressive insight into the necessity and +_generation_ of the phenomena of which it is the law. Suppose a disease in +question, which appeared always accompanied with certain symptoms in +certain stages, and with some one or more symptoms in all stages--say +deranged digestion, capricious alternation of vivacity and languor, +headache, dilated pupil, diminished sensibility to light, &c.--Neither the +man who selected the one constant symptom, nor he who enumerated all the +symptoms, would give the scientific definition _talem scilicet, quali +scientia fit vel datur_, but the man who at once named and defined the +disease hydrocephalus, producing pressure on the brain. For it is the +essence of a scientific definition to be causative, not by introduction of +imaginary somewhats, natural or supernatural under the name of causes, but +by announcing the law of action in the particular case, in subordination +to the common law of which all the phenomena are modifications or results. + +Now in the definition on which, as the representative of a whole class, we +are _now_ animadverting, a single effect is given as constituting the +cause. For nutrition by digestion is certainly necessary to life, only +under certain circumstances, but that life is previously necessary to +digestion is absolutely certain under all circumstances. Besides, what +other phenomenon of Life would the conception of assimilation, _per se_, +or as it exists in the lowest order of animals, involve or explain? How, +for instance, does it include sensation, locomotion, or habit? or if the +two former should be taken as distinct from life, _toto genere_, and +supervenient to it, we then ask what conception is given of _vital_ +assimilation as contradistinguished from that of the nucleus of a crystal? + +_Lastly_, this definition confounds the Law of Life, or the primary and +universal form of vital agency, with the conception, Animals. For the +kind, it substitutes the representative of its degrees and modifications. +But the first and most important office of science, physical or +physiological, is to contemplate the power in kind, abstracted from the +degree. The ideas of caloric, whether as substance or property, and the +conceptions of latent heat, the heat in ice, &c., that excite the wonder +or the laughter of the vulgar, though susceptible of the most important +practical applications, are the result of this abstraction; while the only +purpose to which a definition like the preceding could become subservient, +would be in supplying a nomenclature with the character of the most common +species of a genus--its _genus generalissimum_, and even this would be +useless in the present instance, inasmuch as it presupposes the knowledge +of the things characterised. + +The third class, and far superior to the two former, selects some property +characteristic of all living bodies, not merely found in all _animals_ +alike, but existing equally in all parts of all living things, both +animals and plants. Such, for instance, is the definition of Life, as +consisting in anti-putrescence, or the power of resisting putrefaction. +Like all the others, however, even this confines the idea of Life to those +degrees or concentrations of it, which manifest themselves in organized +beings, or rather in those the organization of which is apparent to us. +Consequently, it substitutes an abstract term, or generalization of +effects, for the idea, or superior form of causative agency. At best, it +describes the _vis vitá_ by one only of its many influences. It is +however, as we have said before, preferable to the former, because it is +not, as they are, altogether unfruitful, inasmuch as it attests, less +equivocally than any other sign, the presence or absence of that degree of +the _vis vitá_ which is the necessary condition of organic or +self-renewing power. It throws no light, however, on the law or principle +of action; it does not increase our insight into the other phenomena; it +presents to us no _inclusive_ form, out of which the other forms may be +developed, and finally, its defect as a definition may be detected by +generalizing it into a higher formula, as a power which, during its +continuance, resists or subordinates heterogeneous and adverse powers. Now +this holds equally true of chemical relatively to the mechanical powers; +and really affirms no more of Life than may be equally affirmed of every +form of being, namely, that it tends to preserve itself, and resists, to a +certain extent, whatever is incompatible with the laws that constitute its +particular state for the time being. For it is not true only of the great +divisions or classes into which we have found it expedient to distinguish, +while we generalize, the powers acting in nature, as into intellectual, +vital, chemical, mechanical; but it holds equally true of the degrees, or +species of each of these genera relatively to each other: as in the +decomposition of the alkalies by heat, or the galvanic spark. Like the +combining power of Life, the copula here resists for awhile the attempts +to dissolve it, and then yields, to reappear in new phenomena. + +It is a wonderful property of the human mind, that when once a momentum +has been given to it in a fresh direction, it pursues the new path with +obstinate perseverance, in all conceivable bearings, to its utmost +extremes. And by the startling consequences which arise out of these +extremes, it is first awakened to its error, and either recalled to some +former track, or receives some fresh impulse, which it follows with the +same eagerness, and admits to the same monopoly. Thus in the 13th century +the first science which roused the intellects of men from the torpor of +barbarism, was, as in all countries ever has been, and ever must be the +case, the science of _Metaphysics_ and _Ontology_. We first seek what can +be found at home, and what wonder if truths, that appeared to reveal the +secret depths of our own souls, should take possession of the whole mind, +and all truths appear trivial which could not either be evolved out of +similar principles, by the same process, or at least brought under the +same forms of thought, by perceived or imagined analogies? And so it was. +For more than a century men continued to invoke the oracle of their own +spirits, not only concerning its own forms and modes of being, but +likewise concerning the laws of external nature. All attempts at +philosophical explication were commenced by a mere effort of the +understanding, as the power of abstraction; or by the imagination, +transferring its own experiences to every object presented from without. +By the former, a class of phenomena were in the first place abstracted, +and fixed in some general term: of course this could designate only the +impressions made by the outward objects, and so far, therefore, having +been thus metamorphosed, they were effects of these objects; but then made +to supply the place of their own causes, under the name of occult +qualities. Thus the properties peculiar to gold, were abstracted from +those it possessed in common with other bodies, and then generalized in +the term _Aureity_: and the inquirer was instructed that the Essence of +Gold, or the cause which constituted the peculiar modification of matter +called gold, was the power of aureity. By the latter, _i.e._ by the +imagination, thought and will were superadded to the occult quality, and +every form of nature had its appropriate Spirit, to be controlled or +conciliated by an appropriate ceremonial. This was entitled its +SUBSTANTIAL FORM. Thus, physic became a sort of dull poetry, and the art +of medicine (for physiology could scarcely be said to exist) was a system +of magic, blended with traditional empiricism. Thus the forms of thought +proceeded to act in their own emptiness, with no attempt to fill or +substantiate them by the information of the senses, and all the branches +of science formed so many sections of logic and metaphysics. And so it +continued, even to the time that the Reformation sounded the second +trumpet, and the authority of the schools sank with that of the hierarchy, +under the intellectual courage and activity which this great revolution +had inspired. Power, once awakened, cannot rest in one object. All the +sciences partook of the new influences. The world of experimental +philosophy was soon mapped out for posterity by the comprehensive and +enterprising genius of Bacon, and the laws explained by which experiment +could be dignified into experience.(2) But no sooner was the impulse +given, than the same propensity was made manifest of looking at all things +in the one point of view which chanced to be of predominant attraction. +Our Gilbert, a man of genuine philosophical genius, had no sooner +multiplied the facts of magnetism, and extended our knowledge concerning +the property of magnetic bodies, but all things in heaven, and earth, and +in the waters beneath the earth, were resolved into magnetic influences. + +Shortly after a new light was struck by Harriott and Descartes, with their +contemporaries, or immediate predecessors, and the restoration of ancient +geometry, aided by the modern invention of algebra, placed the science of +mechanism on the philosophic throne. How widely this domination spread, +and how long it continued, if, indeed, even now it can be said to have +abdicated its pretensions, the reader need not be reminded. The sublime +discoveries of Newton, and, together with these, his not less fruitful +than wonderful application, of the higher mathesis to the movements of the +celestial bodies, and to the laws of light, gave almost a religious +sanction to the corpuscular system and mechanical theory. It became +synonymous with philosophy itself. It was the sole portal at which truth +was permitted to enter. The human body was treated of as an hydraulic +machine, the operations of medicine were solved, and alas! even directed +by reference partly to gravitation and the laws of motion, and partly by +chemistry, which itself, however, as far as its theory was concerned, was +but a branch of mechanics working exclusively by imaginary wedges, angles, +and spheres. Should the reader chance to put his hand on the "Principles +of Philosophy," by La Forge, an immediate disciple of Descartes, he may +see the phenomena of sleep solved in a copper-plate engraving, with all +the figures into which the globules of the blood shaped themselves, and +the results demonstrated by mathematical calculations. In short, from the +time of Kepler(3) to that of Newton, and from Newton to Hartley, not only +all things in external nature, but the subtlest mysteries of life and +organization, and even of the intellect and moral being, were conjured +within the magic circle of mathematical formulæ. And now a new light was +struck by the discovery of electricity, and, in every sense of the word, +both playful and serious, both for good and for evil, it may be affirmed +to have electrified the whole frame of natural philosophy. Close on its +heels followed the momentous discovery of the principal gases by Scheele +and Priestly, the composition of water by Cavendish, and the doctrine of +latent heat by Black. The scientific world was prepared for a new dynasty; +accordingly, as soon as Lavoisier had reduced the infinite variety of +chemical phenomena to the actions, reactions, and interchanges of a few +elementary substances, or at least excited the expectation that this would +speedily be effected, the hope shot up, almost instantly, into full faith, +that it had been effected. Henceforward the new path, thus brilliantly +opened, became the common road to all departments of knowledge: and, to +this moment, it has been pursued with an eagerness and almost epidemic +enthusiasm which, scarcely less than its political revolutions, +characterise the spirit of the age. Many and inauspicious have been the +invasions and inroads of this new conqueror into the rightful territories +of other sciences; and strange alterations have been made in less harmless +points than those of terminology, in homage to an art unsettled, in the +very ferment of imperfect discoveries, and either without a theory, or +with a theory maintained only by composition and compromise. Yet this very +circumstance has favoured its encroachments, by the gratifications which +its novelty affords to our curiosity, and by the keener interest and +higher excitement which an unsettled and revolutionary state is sure to +inspire. He who supposes that science possesses an immunity from such +influences knows little of human nature. How, otherwise, could men of +strong minds and sound judgments have attempted to penetrate by the clue +of chemical experiment the secret recesses, the sacred adyta of organic +life, without being aware that chemistry must needs be at its extreme +limits, when it has approached the threshold of a higher power? Its own +transgressions, however, and the failure of its enterprises will become +the means of defining its absolute boundary, and we shall have to guard +against the opposite error of rejecting its aid altogether as analogy, +because we have repelled its ambitious claims to an identity with the +vital powers. + + * * * * * + +Previously to the submitting my own ideas on the subject of life, and the +powers into which it resolves itself, or rather in which it is manifested +to us, I have hazarded this apparent digression from the anxiety to +_preclude certain suspicions_, which the subject itself is so fitted to +awaken, and while I anticipate the charges, to plead in answer to each a +full and unequivocal--not guilty! + +In the first place, therefore, I distinctly disclaim all intention of +explaining life into an occult quality; and retort the charge on those who +can satisfy themselves with defining it as the peculiar power by which +death is resisted. + +Secondly. Convinced--by revelation, by the consenting authority of all +countries, and of all ages, by the imperative voice of my own conscience, +and by that wide chasm between man and the noblest animals of the brute +creation, which no perceivable or conceivable difference of organization +is sufficient to overbridge--that I have a rational and responsible soul, I +think far too reverentially of the same to degrade it into an hypothesis, +and cannot be blind to the contradiction I must incur, if I assign that +soul which I believe to constitute the peculiar nature of man as the cause +of functions and properties, which man possesses in common with the oyster +and the mushroom.(4) + +Thirdly, while I disclaim the error of Stahl in deriving the phenomena of +life from the unconscious actions of the rational soul, I repel with still +greater earnestness the assertion and even the supposition that the +functions are the offspring of the structure, and "Life(5) the result of +organization," connected with it as effect with cause. Nay, the position +seems to me little less strange, than as if a man should say, that +building with all the included handicraft, of plastering, sawing, planing, +&c. were the offspring of the house; and that the mason and carpenter were +the result of a suite of chambers, with the passages and staircases that +lead to them. To make A the offspring of B, when the very existence of B +as B presupposes the existence of A, is preposterous in the _literal_ +sense of the word, and a consummate instance of the _hysteron proteron_ in +logic. But if I reject the organ as the cause of that, of which it is the +organ, though I might admit it among the _conditions_ of its actual +functions; for the same reason, I must reject _fluids_ and _ethers_ of all +kinds, magnetical, electrical, and universal, to whatever quintessential +thinness they may be treble distilled, and (as it were) +super-substantiated. With these, I abjure likewise all _chemical_ +agencies, compositions, and decompositions, were it only that as +stimulants they suppose a stimulability _sui generis_, which is but +another paraphrase for life. Or if they are themselves at once both the +excitant and the excitability, I miss the connecting link between this +imaginary ether and the visible body, which then becomes no otherwise +distinguished from inanimate matter, than by its juxtaposition in mere +space, with an heterogeneous inmate, the cycle of whose actions revolves +within itself. Besides which I should think that I was confounding +metaphors and realities most absurdly, if I imagined that I had a greater +insight into the meaning and possibility of a living alcohol, than of a +living quicksilver. In short, visible _surface_ and _power_ of any kind, +much more the _power_ of life, are ideas which the very forms of the human +understanding make it impossible to identify. But whether the powers which +manifest themselves to us under certain conditions in the forms of +electricity, or chemical attraction, have any analogy to the power which +manifests itself in growth and organization, is altogether a different +question, and demands altogether a different chain of reasoning: if it be +indeed a tree of knowledge, it will be known by its fruits, and these will +depends not on the mere assertion, but on the inductions by which the +position is supported, and by the additions which it makes to our insight +into the nature of the facts it is meant to illustrate. + +To _account_ for Life is one thing; to explain Life another. In the first +we are supposed to state something prior (if not in time, yet in the order +of Nature) to the thing accounted for, as the ground or cause of that +thing, or (which comprises the meaning and force of both words) as its +_sufficient cause, quae et facit, et subest_. And to this, in the question +of Life, I know no possible answer, but GOD. To account for a thing is to +see into the principle of its possibility, and from that principle to +evolve its being. Thus the mathematician demonstrates the truths of +geometry by constructing them. It is an admirable remark of Joh. Bapt. a +Vico, in a Tract published at Naples, 1710,(6) "Geometrica ideò +demonstramus, quia facimus; physica si demonstrare possimus, faceremus. +Metaphysici veri claritas eadem ac lucis, quam non nisi per opaca +cognoscimus; nam non lucem sed lucidas res videmus. Physica sunt opaca, +nempe formata et finita, in quibus Metaphysici veri lumen videmus." The +reasoner who assigns structure or organization as the antecedent of Life, +who names the former a cause, and the _latter_ its effect, _he_ it is who +pretends to account for life. Now Euclid would, with great right, demand +of such a philosopher to _make_ Life; in the same sense, I mean, in which +Euclid makes an Icosahedron, or a figure of twenty sides, namely, in the +understanding or by an intellectual construction. An argument which, of +itself, is sufficient to prove the untenable nature of Materialism. + +To explain a power, on the other hand, is (the power itself being assumed, +though not comprehended, _ut qui datur, non intelligitur_) to unfold or +spread it out: _ex implicito planum facere_. In the present instance, such +an explanation would consist in the reduction of the idea of Life to its +simplest and most comprehensive form or mode of action; that is, to some +characteristic _instinct_ or _tendency_, evident in all its +manifestations, and involved in the idea itself. This assumed as existing +in _kind_, it will be required to present an ascending series of +corresponding phenomena as involved _in_, proceeding _from_, and so far +therefore explained _by_, the supposition of its progressive intensity and +of the gradual enlargement of its sphere, the necessity of which again +must be contained in the idea of the tendency itself. In other words, the +tendency having been given in _kind_, it is required to render the +phenomena intelligible as its different degrees and modifications. Still +more perfect will the explanation be, should the necessity of this +progression and of these ascending gradations be contained in the assumed +idea of life, as thus defined by the general form and common purport of +all its various tendencies. This done, we have only to add the conditions +common to all its phenomena, and, those appropriate to each place and +rank, in the scale of ascent, and then proceed to determine the primary +and constitutive forms, _i.e._ the elementary powers in which this +tendency realizes itself under different degrees and conditions.(7) + +What is Life? Were such a question proposed, we should be tempted to +answer, what is _not_ Life that really _is_? Our reason convinces us that +the quantities of things, taken abstractedly as quantity, exist only in +the relations they bear to the percipient; in plainer words, they exist +only in our minds, _ut quorum esse est percipi_. For if the definite +quantities have a ground, and therefore a reality, in the external world, +and independent of the mind that perceives them, this ground is _ipso +facto_ a quality; the very etymon of this world showing that a quality, +not taken in its own nature but in relation to another thing, is to be +defined _causa sufficiens, entia, de quibus loquimur; esse talia, qualia +sunt_. Either the quantities perceived exist only in the perception, or +they have likewise a real existence. In the former case, the quality (the +word is here used in an active sense) that determines them belongs to +Life, _per ipsam hypothesin_; and in the other case, since by the +agreement of all parties Life may exist in other forms than those of +consciousness, or even of sensibility, the _onus probandi_ falls on those +who assert of any quality that it is _not_ Life. For the analogy of all +that we know is clearly in favour of the contrary supposition, and if a +man would analyse the meaning of his own words, and carefully distinguish +his perceptions and sensations from the external cause exciting them, and +at the same time from the quantity or superficies under which that cause +is acting, he would instantly find himself, if we mistake not, +involuntarily identifying the ideas of Quality and Life. Life, it is +admitted on all hands, does not necessarily imply consciousness or +sensibility; and we, for our parts, cannot see that the irritability which +metals manifest to galvanism, can be more remote from that which may be +supposed to exist in the tribe of lichens, or in the helvellæ, pezizee, +&c., than the latter is from the phenomena of excitability in the human +body, whatever name it may be called by, or in whatever way it may modify +itself.(8) That the mere act of growth does not constitute the idea of +Life, or the absence of that act exclude it, we have a proof in every egg +before it is placed under the hen, and in every grain of corn before it is +put into the soil. All that could be deduced by fair reasoning would +amount to this only, that the life of metals, as the power which effects +and determines their comparative cohesion, ductility, &c., was yet lower +on the scale than the Life which produces the first attempts of +organization, in the almost shapeless tremella, or in such fungi as grow +in the dark recesses of the mine. + + * * * * * + +If it were asked, to what purpose or with what view we should generalize +the idea of Life thus broadly, I should not hesitate to reply that, were +there no other use conceivable, there would be _some_ advantage in merely +destroying an arbitrary assumption in natural philosophy, and in reminding +the physiologists that they could not hear the life of metals asserted +with a more contemptuous surprise than they themselves incur from the +vulgar, when they speak of the Life in mould or mucor. But this is not the +case. This wider view not only precludes a groundless assumption, it +likewise fills up the arbitrary chasm between physics and physiology, and +justifies us in using the former as means of insight into the latter, +which would be contrary to all sound rules of ratiocination if the powers +working in the objects of the two sciences were absolutely and essentially +diverse. For as to abstract the idea of _kind_ from that of _degrees_, +which are alone designated in the language of common use, is the first and +indispensable step in philosophy, so are we the better enabled to form a +notion of the _kind_, the lower the _degree_, and the simpler the form is +in which it appears to us. We study the complex in the simple; and only +from the intuition of the lower can we safely proceed to the intellection +of the higher degrees. The only danger lies in the leaping from low to +high, with the neglect of the intervening gradations. But the same error +would introduce discord into the gamut, _et ab abusu contra usum non valet +consequentia_. That these degrees will themselves bring forth secondary +kinds sufficiently distinct for all the purposes of science, and even for +common sense, will be seen in the course of this inquisition: for this is +one proof of the essential vitality of nature, that she does not ascend as +links in a suspended chain, but as the steps in a ladder; or rather she at +one and the same time _ascends_ as by a climax, and expands as the +concentric circles on the lake from the point to which the stone in its +fall had given the first impulse. At all events, a contemptuous rejection +of this mode of reasoning would come with an ill grace from a medical +philosopher, who cannot combine any three phenomena of health or of +disease without the assumption of powers, which he is compelled to deduce +without being able to demonstrate; nay, even of material substances as the +_vehicles_ of these powers, which he can never expect to exhibit before +the senses. + +From the preceding it should appear, that the most comprehensive formula +to which life is reducible, would be that of the internal copula of +bodies, or (if we may venture to borrow a phrase from the Platonic school) +the _power_ which discloses itself from within as a principle of _unity_ +in the _many_. But that there is a physiognomy in words, which, without +reference to their fitness or necessity, make unfavorable as well as +favorable impressions, and that every unusual term in an abstruse research +incurs the risk of being denominated jargon, I should at the same time +have borrowed a scholastic _term_, and defined life _absolutely_, as the +principle of unity in _multeity_, as far as the former, the unity to wit, +is produced _ab intra_; but _eminently_ (_sensu eminenti_), I define life +as _the principle of individuation_, or the power which unites a given +_all_ into a _whole_ that is presupposed by all its parts. The link that +combines the two, and acts throughout both, will, of course, be defined by +the _tendency_ to _individuation_. Thus, from its utmost _latency_, in +which life is one with the elementary powers of mechanism, that is, with +the powers of mechanism considered as qualitative and actually synthetic, +to its highest manifestation, (in which, as the _vis vitæ vivida_, or life +_as_ life, it subordinates and modifies these powers, becoming +contra-distinguished from mechanism,(9) _ab extra_, under the form of +organization,) there is an ascending series of intermediate classes, and +of analogous gradations in each class. To a reflecting mind, indeed, the +very fact that the powers peculiar to life in living animals _include_ +cohesion, elasticity, &c. (or, in the words of a late publication, "that +living matter exhibits these physical properties,"(10)) would demonstrate +that, in the truth of things, they are homogeneous, and that both the +classes are but degrees and different dignities of one and the same +tendency. For the latter are not subjected to the former as a lever, or +walking-stick to the muscles; the more intense the life is, the less does +_elasticity_, for instance, appear _as_ elasticity. It sinks down into the +nearest approach to its _physical_ form by a series of degrees from the +contraction and elongation of the irritable muscle to the physical +hardness of the insensitive nail. The lower powers are _assimilated_, not +merely _employed_, and assimilation presupposes the homogeneous nature of +the thing assimilated; else it is a miracle, only not the same as that of +a _creation_, because it would imply that additional and equal miracle of +annihilation. In short, all the impossibilities which the acutest of the +reformed Divines have detected in the hypothesis of transubstantiation +would apply, _totidem verbis et syllabis_, to that of assimilation, if the +objects and the agents were really heterogeneous. Unless, therefore, a +thing can exhibit properties which do not belong to it, the very admission +that living matter exhibits physical properties, includes the further +admission, that those _physical_ or dead properties are themselves vital +in essence, really _distinct_ but in appearance only _different_; or in +absolute contrast with each other. + +In all cases that which, _abstractly_ taken, is the definition of the +_kind_, will, when applied _absolutely_, or in its fullest sense, be the +definition of the highest _degree_ of that kind. If life, in general, be +defined _vis ab intra, cujus proprium est coadunare plura in rem unicam, +quantùm est res unica_; the unity will be more intense in proportion as it +constitutes each particular thing a whole of itself; and yet more, again, +in proportion to the number and interdependence of the parts, which it +unites as a whole. But a whole composed, _ab intra_, of different parts, +so far interdependent that each is reciprocally means and end, is an +individual, and the individuality is most intense where the greatest +dependence of the parts on the whole is combined with the greatest +dependence of the whole on its parts; the first (namely, the dependence of +the parts on the whole) being absolute; the second (namely, the dependence +of the whole on its parts) being proportional to the importance of the +relation which the parts have to the whole, that is, as their action +extends more or less beyond themselves. For this spirit of the whole is +most expressed in that part which derives its importance as an End from +its importance as a Mean, relatively to all the parts under the same +copula. + +Finally, of individuals, the living power will be most intense in that +individual which, as a whole, has the greatest number of integral parts +presupposed in it; when, moreover, these integral parts, together with a +proportional increase of their interdependence, as _parts_, have +themselves most the character of wholes in the sphere occupied by them. A +mathematical point, line, or surface, is an _ens rationis_, for it +expresses an intellectual act; but a physical atom is _ens fictitium_, +which may be made subservient, as ciphers are in arithmetic, to the +purposes of hypothetical construction, _per regulam falsi_; but +transferred to _Nature_, it is in the strictest sense an _absurd_ +quantity; for extension, and consequently divisibility, or _multeity_,(11) +(for space cannot be divided,) is the indispensable condition, under which +alone anything can _appear_ to us, or even be _thought_ of, as a _thing_. +But if it should be replied, that the elementary particles are atoms not +positively, but by such a hardness communicated to them as is relatively +invincible, I should remind the assertor that _temeraria citatio +supernaturalium est pulvinar intellectús pigri_, and that he who requires +me to believe a miracle of his own dreaming, must first work a miracle to +convince me that he had dreamt by inspiration. Add, too, the gross +inconsistency of resorting to an immaterial influence in order to complete +a system of materialism, by the exclusion of all modes of existence which +the theorist cannot in imagination, at least, _finger_ and _peep_ at! Each +of the preceding gradations, as above defined, might be represented as +they exist, and are realised in Nature. But each would require a work for +itself, co-extensive with the science of metals, and that of fossils (both +as geologically applied); of crystallization; and of vegetable and animal +physiology, in all its distinct branches. The nature of the present essay +scarcely permits the space sufficient to illustrate our meaning. The proof +of its probability (for to that only can we arrive by so partial an +application of the hypothesis), is to be found in its powers of solving +the particular class of phenomena, that form the subjects of the present +inquisition, more satisfactorily and profitably than has been done, or +even attempted before. + +Exclusively, therefore, for the purposes of _illustration_, I would take +as an instance of the first step, the metals, those, namely, that are +capable of permanent reduction. For, by the established laws of +nomenclature, the others (as sodium, potassium, calcium, silicium, &c.) +would be entitled to a class of their own, under the name of _bases_. It +is long since the chemists have despaired of decomposing this class of +bodies. They still remain, one and all, as elements or simple bodies, +though, on the principles of the corpuscularian philosophy, nothing can be +more improbable than that they really are such; and no reason has or can +be assigned on the grounds of that system, why, in no one instance, the +contrary has not been proved. But this is at once explained, if we assume +them as the simplest form of unity, namely, the unity of powers and +properties. For these, it is evident, may be endlessly modified, but can +never be decomposed. If I were asked by a philosopher who had previously +extended the attribute of Life to the _Byssus speciosa_, and even to the +crustaceous matter, or outward bones of a lobster, &c., whether the ingot +of gold expressed _life_, I should answer without hesitation, as the +_ingot_ of gold assuredly not, for its form is accidental and _ab extra_. +It may be added to or detracted from without in the least affecting the +nature, state, or properties in the specific matter of which the ingot +consists. But as _gold_, as that special union of absolute and of relative +gravity, ductility, and hardness, which, wherever they are found, +constitute _gold_, I should answer no less fearlessly, in the affirmative. +But I should further add, that of the two counteracting tendencies of +nature, namely, that of _detachment_ from the universal life, which +universality is represented to us by gravitation, and that of _attachment_ +or reduction into it, this and the other noble metals represented the +units in which the latter tendency, namely, that of identity with the life +of nature, subsisted in the greatest overbalance over the former. It is +the form of unity with the least degree of tendency to individuation. + +Rising in the ascent, I should take, as illustrative of the second step, +the various forms of crystals as a union, not of powers only, but of +parts, and as the simplest forms of composition in the next narrowest +sphere of affinity. Here the form, or apparent _quantity_, is manifestly +the result of the _quality_, and the chemist himself not seldom admits +them as infallible characters of the substances united in the whole of a +given crystal. + +In the first step, we had Life, as the mere _unity_ of powers; in the +second we have the simplest forms of _totality_ evolved. The third step is +presented to us in those vast formations, the tracing of which generically +would form the science of Geology, or its history in the strict sense of +the word, even as their description and diagnostics constitute its +preliminaries. + +Their claim to this rank I cannot here even attempt to support. It will be +sufficient to explain my reason for having assigned it to them, by the +avowal, that I regard them in a twofold point of view: 1st, as the residue +and product of vegetable and animal life; 2d, as manifesting the +tendencies of the Life of Nature to vegetation or animalization. And this +process I believe--in one instance by the peat morasses of the northern, +and in the other instance by the coral banks of the southern hemisphere--to +be still connected with the present order of vegetable and animal Life, +which constitute the fourth and last step in these wide and comprehensive +divisions. + +In the lowest forms of the vegetable and animal world we perceive totality +dawning into _individuation_, while in man, as the highest of the class, +the individuality is not only perfected in its corporeal sense, but begins +a new series beyond the appropriate limits of physiology. The tendency to +individuation, more or less obscure, more or less obvious, constitutes the +common character of all classes, as far as they maintain for themselves a +distinction from the universal life of the planet; while the degrees, both +of intensity and extension, to which this tendency is realized, form the +species, and their ranks in the great scale of ascent and expansion. + +In the treatment of a subject so vast and complex, within the limits +prescribed for an essay like the present, where it is impossible not to +say either too much or too little (and too much because too little), an +author is entitled to make large claims on the candour of his judges. Many +things he must express inaccurately, not from ignorance or oversight, but +because the more precise expression would have involved the necessity of a +further explanation, and this another, even to the first elements of the +science. This is an inconvenience which presses on the analytic method, on +however large a scale it may be conducted, compared with the synthetic; +and it must bear with a tenfold weight in the present instance, where we +are not permitted to avail ourselves of its usual advantages as a +counterbalance to its inherent defects. I shall have done all that I dared +propose to myself, or that can be justly demanded of me by others, if I +have succeeded in conveying a sufficiently clear, though indistinct and +inadequate notion, so as of its many results to render intelligible that +one which I am to apply to my particular subject, not as a truth already +demonstrated, but as an hypothesis, which pretends to no higher merit than +that of explaining the particular class of phenomena to which it is +applied, and asks no other reward than a presumption in favour of the +general system of which it affirms itself to be a dependent though +integral part. By Life I everywhere mean the true Idea of Life, or that +most general form under which Life manifests itself to us, which includes +all its other forms. This I have stated to be the _tendency to +individuation_, and the degrees or intensities of Life to consist in the +progressive realization of this tendency. The power which is acknowledged +to exist, wherever the realization is found, must subsist wherever the +tendency is manifested. The power which comes forth and stirs abroad in +the bird, must be latent in the egg. I have shown, moreover, that this +tendency to individuate cannot be conceived without the opposite tendency +to connect, even as the centrifugal power supposes the centripetal, or as +the two opposite poles constitute each other, and are the constituent acts +of one and the same power in the magnet. We might say that the life of the +magnet subsists in their union, but that it lives (acts or manifests +itself) in their strife. Again, if the tendency be at once to individuate +and to connect, to detach, but so as either to retain or to reproduce +attachment, the individuation itself must be a tendency to the ultimate +production of the highest and most comprehensive individuality. This must +be the one great end of Nature, her ultimate object, or by whatever other +word we may designate that something which bears to a final cause the same +relation that Nature herself bears to the Supreme Intelligence. + + * * * * * + +According to the plan I have prescribed for this inquisition, we are now +to seek for the highest law, or most general form, under which this +tendency acts, and then to pursue the same process with this, as we have +already done with the tendency itself, namely, having stated the law in +its highest abstraction, to present it in the different forms in which it +appears and reappears in higher and higher dignities. I restate the +question. The tendency having been ascertained, what is its most general +law? I answer--_polarity_, or the essential dualism of Nature, arising out +of its productive unity, and still tending to reaffirm it, either as +equilibrium, indifference, or identity. In its _productive power_, of +which the product is the only measure, consists its incompatibility with +mathematical calculus. For the full applicability of an abstract science +ceases, the moment reality begins.(12) Life, then, we consider as the +copula, or the unity of thesis and antithesis, position and +counterposition,--Life itself being the positive of both; as, on the other +hand, the two counterpoints are the necessary conditions of the +_manifestations_ of Life. These, by the same necessity, unite in a +synthesis; which again, by the law of dualism, essential to all actual +existence, expands, or _produces_ itself, from the point into the _line_, +in order again to converge, as the initiation of the same productive +process in some intenser form of reality. Thus, in the identity of the two +counter-powers, Life _sub_sists; in their strife it _con_sists: and in +their reconciliation it at once dies and is born again into a new form, +either falling back into the life of the whole, or starting anew in the +process of individuation. + +Whence shall we take our beginning? From Space, _istud litigium +philosophorum_, which leaves the mind equally dissatisfied, whether we +deny or assert its real existence. To make it wholly ideal, would be at +the same time to idealize all phenomena, and to undermine the very +conception of an external world. To make it real, would be to assert the +existence of something, with the properties of nothing. It would far +transcend the height to which a physiologist must confine his flights, +should we attempt to reconcile this apparent contradiction. It is the duty +and the privilege of the theologian to demonstrate, that _space_ is the +ideal organ by which the soul of man perceives the _omnipresence_ of the +Supreme Reality, as distinct from the works, which in him move, and live, +and have their being; while the equal mystery of _Time_ bears the same +relation to his _Eternity_, or what is fully equivalent, his Unity. + +Physiologically contemplated, Nature begins, proceeds, and ends in a +contradiction; for the moment of absolute solution would be that in which +Nature would cease to be Nature, _i.e._ a scheme of ever-varying +relations; and physiology, in the ambitious attempt to solve phenomena +into absolute realities, would itself become a mere web of verbal +abstractions. + +But it is in strict connexion with our subject, that we should make the +universal FORMS as well as the not less universal LAW of Life, clear and +intelligible in the example of _Time_ and _Space_, these being both the +first specification of the principle, and ever after its indispensable +symbols. First, a single act of self-inquiry will show the impossibility +of distinctly conceiving the one without some involution of the other; +either time expressed in space, in the form of the mathematical line, or +space within time, as in the circle. But to form the first conception of a +_real_ thing, we state both as one in the idea, _duration_. The formula +is: (A=B+B=A)=(A=A) or the oneness of space and time, is the predicate of +all _real_ being. + +But as little can we conceive the oneness, except as the mid-point +producing itself on each side; that is, manifesting itself on two opposite +poles. Thus, from identity we derive duality, and from both together we +obtain polarity, synthesis, indifference, predominance. The line is Time + +Space, under the predominance of Time: Surface is Space + Time, under the +predominance of Space, while Line + Surface as the synthesis of units, is +the circle in the first dignity; to the sphere in the second; and to the +globe in the third. In short, neither can the antagonists appear but as +two forces of one power, nor can the power be conceived by us but as the +equatorial point of the two counteracting forces; of which the +_hypomochlion_ of the lever is as good an illustration as anything can be +that is thought of _mechanically_ only, and exclusively of life. To make +it adequate, we must substitute the idea of positive production for that +of rest, or mere neutralization. To the fancy alone it is the null-point, +or zero, but to the reason it is the _punctum saliens_, and the power +itself in its eminence. Even in these, the most abstract and universal +forms of all thought and perception--even in the ideas of time and space, +we slip under them, as it were, a _substratum_; for we cannot think of +them but as far as they are co-inherent, and therefore as reciprocally the +measures of each other. Nor, again, can we finish the process without +having the idea of _motion_ as its immediate product. Thus we say, that +time has one dimension, and imagine it to ourselves as a line. But the +line we have already proved to be the productive synthesis of time, with +space under the predominance of time. If we exclude space by an abstract +assumption, the time remains as a spaceless point, and represents the +concentered power of unity and active negation, _i.e._ retraction, +determination, and limit, _ab intra_. But if we assume the time as +excluded, the line vanishes, and we leave space dimensionless, an +indistinguishable ALL, and therefore the representative of absolute +weakness and formlessness, but, for that very reason, of infinite capacity +and formability. + +We have been thus full and express on this subject, because these simple +ideas of time, space, and motion, of length, breadth, and depth, are not +only the simplest and universal, but the necessary symbols of all +philosophic construction. They will be found the primary factors and +elementary forms of every calculus and of every diagram in the algebra and +geometry of a scientific physiology. Accordingly, we shall recognise the +same forms under other names; but at each return more specific and +intense; and the whole process repeated with ascending gradations of +reality, _exempli gratiâ_: Time + space = motion; T_m_ + space = line + +breadth = depth; depth + motion = force; L_f_ + B_f_ = D_f_; LD_f_ + BD_f_ += attraction + repulsion = gravitation; and so on, even till they pass +into outward phenomena, and form the intermediate link between productive +powers and fixed products in light, heat, and electricity. If we pass to +the construction of matter, we find it as the product, or _tertium aliud_, +of antagonist powers of repulsion and attraction. Remove these powers, and +the conception of matter vanishes into space--conceive repulsion only, and +you have the same result. For infinite repulsion, uncounteracted and +alone, is tantamount to infinite, dimensionless diffusion, and this again +to infinite weakness; viz., to space. Conceive attraction alone, and as an +infinite contraction, its product amounts to the absolute point, viz., to +time. Conceive the synthesis of both, and you have matter as a fluxional +antecedent, which, in the very act of formation, passes into body by its +gravity, and yet in all bodies it still remains as their mass, which, +being exclusively calculable under the law of gravitation, gives rise, as +we before observed, to the science of statics, most improperly called +celestial mechanics. + +In strict consistence with the same philosophy which, instead of +considering the powers of bodies to have been miraculously stuck into a +prepared and pre-existing matter, as pins into a pin-cushion, conceives +the powers as the productive factors, and the body or phenomenon as the +fact, product, or fixture; we revert again to potentiated length in the +power of magnetism; to surface in the power of electricity; and to the +synthesis of both, or potentiated depth, in constructive, that is, +chemical affinity. But while the two factors are as poles to each other, +each factor has likewise its own poles, and thus in the simple cross-- + +With M M, the magnetic line, running from top to bottom, with _f f_ its +northern pole, or pole of attraction; and _m m_ its south, or pole of +repulsion, and E E, running from left to right, one of the lines that +spring from each point of M M, with its east, or pole of contraction, and +_d_ its west, or pole of diffluence and expansion--we have presented to us +the universal quadruplicity, or four elemental forms of power; in the +endless proportions and modifications of which, the innumerable offspring +of all-bearing Nature consist. Wisely docile to the suggestions of Nature +herself, the ancients significantly expressed these forces under the names +of earth, water, air, and fire; not meaning any tangible or visible +substance so generalized, but the powers predominant, and, as it were, the +living basis of each, which no chemical decomposition can ever present to +the senses, were it only that their interpenetration and co-inherence +first constitutes them sensible, and is the condition and meaning of +a--_thing_. Already our more truly philosophical naturalists (Ritter, for +instance) have begun to generalize the four great elements of chemical +nomenclature, carbon, azote, oxygen, and hydrogen: the two former as the +positive and negative pole of the magnetic axis, or as the power of fixity +and mobility; and the two latter as the opposite poles, or plus and minus +states of cosmical electricity, as the powers of contraction and +dilatation, or of comburence and combustibility. These powers are to each +other as longitude to latitude, and the poles of each relatively as north +to south, and as east to west. For surely the reader will find no distrust +in a system only because Nature, ever consistent with herself, presents us +everywhere with harmonious and accordant symbols of her consistent +doctrines. Nothing would be more easy than, by the ordinary principles of +sound logic and common sense, to demonstrate the impossibility and expose +the absurdity of the corpuscularian or mechanic system, or than to prove +the intenable nature of any intermediate system. But we cannot force any +man into an insight or intuitive possession of the true philosophy, +because we cannot give him abstraction, intellectual intuition, or +constructive imagination; because we cannot organize for him an eye that +can see, an ear that can listen to, or a heart that can feel, the +harmonies of Nature, or recognise in her endless forms, the thousand-fold +realization of those simple and majestic laws, which yet in their +absoluteness can be discovered only in the recesses of his own spirit,--not +by that man, therefore, whose imaginative powers have been _ossified_ by +the continual reaction and assimilating influences of mere _objects_ on +his mind, and who is a prisoner to his own eye and its reflex, the passive +fancy!--not by him in whom an unbroken familiarity with the organic world, +as if it were mechanical, with the sensitive, but as if it were insensate, +has engendered the coarse and hard spirit of a sorcerer. The former is +unable, the latter unwilling, to master the absolute pre-requisites. There +is neither hope nor occasion for him "to cudgel his brains about it, he +has no feeling of the business." If he do not see the necessity from +without, if he have not learned the possibility from within, of +interpenetration, of total intussusception, of the existence of all in +each as the condition of Nature's unity and substantiality, and of the +latency under the predominance of some one power, wherein subsists her +life and its endless variety, as he must be, by habitual slavery to the +eye, or its reflex, the passive fancy, under the influences of the +corpuscularian philosophy, he has so paralysed his imaginative powers as +to be unable--or by that hardness and heart-hardening spirit of contempt, +which is sure to result from a perpetual commune with the lifeless, he has +so far debased his inward being--as to be unwilling to comprehend the +pre-requisite, he must be content, while standing thus at the threshold of +philosophy, to receive the results, though he cannot be admitted to the +deliberation--in other words, to act upon _rules_ which he is incapable of +understanding as LAWS, and to reap the harvest with the sharpened iron for +which others have delved for him in the mine. + +It is not improbable that there may exist, and even be discovered, higher +forms and more akin to Life than those of magnetism, electricity, and +constructive (or chemical) affinity appear to be, even in their finest +known influences. It is not improbable that we may hereafter find +ourselves justified in revoking certain of the latter, and unappropriating +them to a yet unnamed triplicity; or that, being thus assisted, we may +obtain a qualitative instead of a quantitative insight into vegetable +animation, as distinct from animal, and that of the insect world from +both. But in the present state of science, the magnetic, electric, and +chemical powers are the last and highest of inorganic nature. These, +therefore, we assume as presenting themselves again to us, in their next +metamorphosis, as reproduction (_i.e._ growth and identity of the whole, +amid the change or flux of all the parts), irritability and sensibility; +reproduction corresponding to magnetism, irritability to electricity, and +sensibility to constructive chemical affinity. + + * * * * * + +But before we proceed further, it behoves us to answer the objections +contained in the following passage, or withdraw ourselves in time from the +bitter contempt in which it would involve us. Acting under such a +necessity, we need not apologise for the length of the quotation. + +1. "If," says Mr. Lawrence, "the properties of living matter are to be +explained in this way, why should not we adopt the same plan with physical +properties, and account for gravitation, or chemical affinity, by the +supposition of appropriate subtile fluids? Why does the irritability of a +muscle need such an explanation, if explanation it can be called, more +than the elective attraction of a salt?" + +2. "To make the matter more intelligible, this vital principle is compared +to magnetism, to electricity, and to galvanism; or it is roundly stated to +be oxygen. 'Tis like a camel, or like a whale, or like what you please." + +3. "You have only to grant that the phenomena of the sciences just alluded +to depend on extremely fine and invisible fluids, superadded to the +matters in which they are exhibited, and to allow further that Life, and +magnetic, galvanic, and electric phenomena correspond perfectly; the +existence of a subtile matter of Life will then be a very probable +inference." + +4. "On this illustration you will naturally remark, that the existence of +the magnetic, electric, and galvanic fluids, which is offered as a proof +of the existence of a vital fluid, is as much a matter of doubt as that of +the vital fluid itself." + +5. "It is singular, also, that the vital principle should be like both +magnetism and electricity, when these two are not like each other." + +6. "It would have been interesting to have had this illustration +prosecuted a little further. We should have been pleased to learn whether +the human body is more like a loadstone, a voltaic pile, or an electrical +machine; whether the organs are to be regarded as Leyden jars, magnetic +needles, or batteries." + +7. "The truth is, there is no resemblance, no analogy, between Electricity +and Life; the two orders of phenomena are completely distinct; they are +incommensurable. Electricity illustrates life no more than life +illustrates electricity."(13) + +To avoid unnecessary description, I shall refer to the passages by the +numbers affixed to them, for that purpose, in the margin. + +In reply to No. 1, I ask whether, in the nature of the mind, illustration +and explanation must not of necessity proceed from the lower to the +higher? or whether a boy is to be taught his addition, subtraction, +multiplication, and division, by the highest branches of algebraic +analysis? Is there any better way of systematic teaching, than that of +illustrating each new step, or having each new step illustrated to him by +its identity in kind with the step the next below it? though it be the +only mode in which this objection can be answered, yet it seems affronting +to remind the objector, of rules so simple as that the complex must even +be illustrated by the more simple, or the less scrutible by that which is +more subject to our examination. + +In reply to No. 2, I first refer to the author's eulogy on Mr. Hunter, p. +163, in which he is justly extolled for having "surveyed the whole +_system_ of organized beings, from plants to man:" of course, therefore, +_as_ a _system_; and therefore under some _one common law_. Now in the +very same sense, and no other, than that in which the writer himself by +implication compares himself as a man to the _dermestes typographicus_, or +the _fucus scorpioides_, do I compare the principle of Life to magnetism, +electricity, and constructive affinity,--or rather to that power to which +the two former are the thesis and antithesis, the latter the synthesis. +But if to compare involve the sense of its etymon, and involve the sense +of parity, I utterly deny that I do at all compare them; and, in truth, in +no conceivable sense of the word is it applicable, any more than a +geometrician can be affirmed to compare a polygon to a point, because he +generates the line out of the point. The writer attributes to a philosophy +essentially vital the barrenness of the mechanic system, with which alone +his imagination has been familiarised, and which, as hath been justly +observed by a contemporary writer, is contradistinguished from the former +principally in this respect; that demanding for every mode and act of +existence real or possible visibility, it knows only of distance and +nearness, composition (or rather compaction) and decomposition, in short, +the relations of unproductive particles to each other; so that in every +instance the result is the exact sum of the component qualities, as in +arithmetical addition. This is the philosophy of Death, and only of a dead +nature can it hold good. In Life, and in the view of a vital philosophy, +the two component counter-powers actually interpenetrate each other, and +generate a higher third, including both the former, "ita tamen ut sit alia +et major." + +As a complete answer to No. 3, I refer the reader to many passages in the +preceding and following pages, in which, on far higher and more +demonstrative grounds than the mechanic system can furnish, I have exposed +the unmeaningness and absurdity of these finer fluids, as applied even to +electricity itself; unless, indeed, they are assumed as its product. But +in addition I beg leave to remind the author, that it is incomparably more +agreeable to all experience to originate the formative process in the +_fluid_, whether fine or gross, than in corporeal _atoms_, in which we are +not only deserted by all experience, but contradicted by the primary +conception of body itself. + +Equally inapplicable is No. 4: and of No. 5 I can only repeat, first, that +I do not make Life _like_ magnetism, or _like_ electricity; that the +difference between magnetism and electricity, and the powers illustrated +by them, is an essential part of my system, but that the animal Life of +man is the identity of all three. To whatever other system this objection +may apply, it is utterly irrelevant to that which I have here propounded: +though from the narrow limits prescribed to me, it has been propounded +with an inadequacy painful to my own feelings. + +The ridicule in No. 6 might be easily retorted; but as it could prove +nothing, I will leave it where I found it, in a page where nothing is +proved. + +A similar remark might be sufficient for the bold and blank assertion (No. +7) with which the extract concludes; but that I feel some curiosity to +discover what meaning the author attaches to the term analogy. Analogy +implies a difference in sort, and not merely in degree; and it is the +sameness of the end, with the difference of the means, which constitutes +analogy. No one would say the lungs of a man were analogous to the lungs +of a monkey, but any one might say that the gills of fish and the +spiracula of insects are analogous to lungs. Now if there be any +philosophers who have asserted that electricity as electricity is the +_same_ as Life, for that reason they cannot be _analogous_ to each other; +and as no man in his senses, philosopher or not, is capable of imagining +that the lightning which destroys a sheep, was a means to the same end +with the principle of its organization; for this reason, too, the two +powers cannot be represented as analogous. Indeed I know of no system in +which the word, as thus applied, would admit of an endurable meaning, but +that which teaches us, that a mass of marrow in the skull is analogous to +the rational soul, which Plato and Bacon, equally with the "poor Indian," +believe themselves to have received from the Supreme Reason. + +It would be blindness not to see, or affectation to pretend not to see, +the work at which these sarcasms were levelled. The author of that work is +abundantly able to defend his own opinions; yet I should be ambitious to +address _him_ at the close of the contest in the lines of the great Roman +poet: + +"Et nos tela, Pater, ferrumque haud debile dextrâ +Spargimus, et nostro sequitur, de vulnere sanguis." + +In Mr. Abernethy's Lecture on the Theory of Life, it is impossible not to +see a presentiment of a great truth. He has, if I may so express myself, +caught it in the breeze: and we seem to hear the first glad opening and +shout with which he springs forward to the pursuit. But it is equally +evident that the prey has not been followed through its doublings and +windings, or driven out from its brakes and covers into full and open +view. Many of the least tenable phrases may be fairly interpreted as +illustrations, rather than precise exponents of the author's meaning; at +least, while they remain as a mere suggestion or annunciation of his +ideas, and till he has expanded them over a larger sphere, it would be +unjust to infer the contrary. But it is not with men, however strongly +their professional merits may entitle them to reverence, that my concern +is at present. If the opinions here supported are the same with those of +Mr. Abernethy, I rejoice in his authority. If they are different, I shall +wait with an anxious interest for an exposition of that difference. + +Having reasserted that I no more confound magnetism with electricity, or +the chemical process, than the mathematician confounds length with +breadth, or either with depth; I think it sufficient to add that there are +two views of the subject, the former of which I do not believe +attributable to any philosopher, while both are alike disclaimed by me as +forming any part of my views. The first is that which is supposed to +consider electricity identical with life, as it subsists in organized +bodies. The other considers electricity as everywhere present, and +penetrating all bodies under the image of a subtile fluid or substance, +which, in Mr. Abernethy's inquiry, I regard as little more than a mere +diagram on his slate, for the purpose of fixing the attention on the +intellectual conception, or as a possible _product_, (in which case +electricity must be a composite power,) or at worst, as words _quæ humana +incuria fudit_. This which, in inanimate Nature, is manifested now as +magnetism, now as electricity, and now as chemical agency, is supposed, on +entering an organized body, to constitute its vital _principle_, something +in the same manner as the steam becomes the _mechanic_ power of the +steam-engine, in _consequence_ of its compression by the steam-engine; or +as the breeze that murmurs indistinguishably in the forest becomes the +element, the substratum, of melody in the Æolian harp, and of consummate +harmony in the organ. Now this hypothesis is as directly opposed to my +view as supervention is to evolution, inasmuch as I hold the organized +body itself, in all its marvellous contexture, to be the PRODUCT and +representant of the power which is here supposed to have supervened to it. +So far from admitting a _transfer_, I do not admit it even in electricity +itself, or in the phenomena universally called electrical; among other +points I ground my explanation of remote sympathy on the directly contrary +supposition. + +But my opinions will be best explained by a rapid exemplification in the +processes of Nature, from the first rudiments of individualized life in +the lowest classes of its two great poles, the vegetable and animal +creation, to its crown and consummation in the human body; thus +illustrating at once the unceasing _polarity of life, as the form of its +process, and its tendency to progressive individuation as the law of its +direction_. + +Among the conceptions, of the mere ideal character of which the +philosopher is well aware, and which yet become necessary from the +necessity of assuming a beginning; the original fluidity of the planet is +the chief. Under some form or other it is expressed or implied in every +system of cosmogony and even of geology, from Moses to Thales, and from +Thales to Werner. This assumption originates in the same law of mind that +gave rise to the _prima materia_ of the Peripatetic school. In order to +_comprehend_ and _explain_ the _forms_ of things, we must imagine a state +_antecedent_ to form. A chaos of heterogeneous substances, such as our +Milton has described, is not only an _impossible_ state (for this may be +equally true of every other attempt), but it is _palpably_ impossible. It +presupposes, moreover, the thing it is intended to solve; and makes _that_ +an _effect_ which had been called in as the explanatory _cause_. The +requisite and only serviceable fiction, therefore, is the representation +of CHAOS as one vast homogeneous drop! In this sense it may be even +justified, as an appropriate symbol of the great fundamental truth that +all things spring from, and subsist in, the endless strife between +indifference and difference. The whole history of Nature is comprised in +the specification of the transitional states from the one to the other. +The symbol only is fictitious: the thing signified is not only grounded in +truth--it is the law and actuating principle of all other truths, whether +physical or intellectual. + +Now, by magnetism in its widest sense, I mean the first and simplest +_differential_ act of Nature, as the power which works in _length_, and +produces the first distinction between the indistinguishable by the +generation of a _line_. Relatively, therefore, to fluidity, that is, to +matter, the parts of which cannot be distinguished from each other by +figure, magnetism is the power of fixity; but, relatively to itself, +magnetism, like every other power in Nature, is designated by its opposite +poles, and must be represented as the magnetic axis, the northern pole of +which signifies rest, attraction, fixity, coherence, or hardness; the +element of EARTH in the nomenclature of _observation_ and the CARBONIC +principle in that of _experiment_; while the southern pole, as its +antithesis, represents mobility, repulsion, incoherence, and fusibility; +the element of air in the nomenclature of observation (that is, of Nature +as it appears to us when unquestioned by art), and azote or nitrogen in +the nomenclature of experiment (that is, of Nature in the state so +beautifully allegorized in the Homeric fable of Proteus bound down, and +forced to answer by Ulysses, after having been pursued through all his +metamorphoses into his ultimate form.(14)) That nothing real does or can +exist corresponding to either pole _exclusively_, is involved in the very +definition of a THING as the synthesis of opposing energies. That a thing +_is_, is owing to the co-inherence therein of any two powers; but that it +is _that_ particular thing arises from the proportions in which these +powers are co-present, either as predominance or as reciprocal +neutralization; but under the modification of twofold power to which +magnetism itself is, as the thesis to its antithesis. + +The correspondent, in the world of the senses, to the magnetic axis, +exists in the series of metals. The metalleity, as the universal base of +the planet, is a necessary deduction from the principles of the system. +From the infusible, though evaporable, diamond to nitrogen itself, the +metallic nature of which has been long suspected by chemists, though still +under the mistaken notion of an oxyde, we trace a series of metals from +the maximum of coherence to positive fluidity, in all ordinary +temperatures, we mean. Though, in point of fact, cold itself is but a +superinduction of the one pole, or, what amounts to the same thing, the +subtraction of the other, under the modifications afore described; and +therefore are the metals indecomposible, because they are themselves the +decompositions of the metallic axis, in all its degrees of longitude and +latitude. Thus the substance of the planet from which it _is_, is +metallic; while that which is ever _becoming_, is in like manner produced +through the perpetual modification of the first by the opposite forces of +the second; that is, by the principle of contraction and difference at the +eastern extreme--the element of fire, or the oxygen of the chemists; and by +the elementary power of dilatation, or universality at its western +extreme--the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} of the ancients, and the hydrogen of the +laboratory. + +It has been before noticed that the progress of Nature is more truly +represented by the ladder, than by the suspended chain, and that she +expands as by concentric circles. This is, indeed, involved in the very +conception of individuation, whether it be applied to the different +species or to the individuals. In what manner the evident interspace is +reconciled with the equally evident continuity of the life of Nature, is a +problem that can be solved by those minds alone, which have intuitively +learnt that the whole _actual_ life of Nature originates in the existence, +and consists in the perpetual reconciliation, and as perpetual resurgency +of the primary contradiction, of which universal polarity is the result +and the exponent. From the first moment of the differential impulse--(the +primæval chemical epoch of the Wernerian school)--when Nature, by the +tranquil deposition of crystals, prepared, as it were, the fulcrum of her +after-efforts, from this, her first, and in part _irrevocable_, +self-contraction, we find, in each ensuing production, more and more +tendency to independent existence in the increasing multitude of strata, +and in the relics of the lowest orders, first of vegetable and then of +animal life. In the schistous formations, which we must here assume as in +great measure the residua of vegetable creations, that have sunk back into +the universal life, and in the later predominant calcareous masses, which +are the _caput mortuum_ of animalized existence, we ascend from the laws +of attraction and repulsion, as united in gravity, to magnetism, +electricity, and constructive power, till we arrive at the point +representative of a new and far higher intensity. For from this point +flow, as in opposite directions, the two streams of vegetation and +animalization, the former characterised by the predominance of magnetism +in its highest power, as reproduction, the other by electricity +intensified--as irritability, in like manner. The vegetable and animal +world are the thesis and antithesis, or the opposite poles of organic +life. We are not, therefore, to seek in either for analogies to the other, +but for counterpoints. On the same account, the nearer the common source, +the greater the likeness; the farther the remove, the greater the +opposition. At the extreme limits of inorganic Nature, we may detect a dim +and obscure prophecy of her ensuing process in the twigs and rude +semblances that occur in crystallization of some of the copper ores, and +in the well-known _arbor Dianæ_, and _arbor Veneris_. These latter Ritter +has already ably explained by considering the oblique branches and their +acute angles as the result of magnetic repulsion, from the presentation of +the same poles, &c. In the CORALS and CONCHYLIA, the whole act and purpose +of their existence seems to be that of connecting the animal with the +inorganic world by the perpetual formation of calcareous earth. For the +corals are nothing but polypi, which are characterised by still passing +away and dissolving into the earth, which they had previously excreted, as +if they were the first feeble effort of detachment. The power seems to +step forward from out the inorganic world only to fall back again upon it, +still, however, under a new form, and under the predominance of the more +active pole of magnetism. The product must have the same connexion, +therefore, with azote, which the first rudiments of vegetation have with +carbon: the one and the other exist not for their own sakes, but in order +to produce the conditions best fitted for the production of higher forms. +In the polypi, corallines, &c., individuality is in its first dawn; there +is the same shape in them all, and a multitude of animals form, as it +were, a common animal. And as the individuals run into each other, so do +the different genera. They likewise pass into each other so +indistinguishably, that the whole order forms a very network. + +As the corals approach the conchylia, this interramification decreases. +The tubipora forms the transition to the serpula; for the characteristic +of all zoophytes, namely, the star shape of their openings, here +disappears, and the tubiporæ are distinguished from the rest of the corals +by this very circumstance, that the hollow calcareous pipes are placed +side by side, without interbranching. In the serpula they have already +become separate. How feeble this attempt is to individuate, is most +clearly shown in their mode of generation. Notwithstanding the report of +Professor Pallas, it still remains doubtful whether there exists any +actual copulation among the polypi. The mere existence of a polypus +suffices for its endless multiplication. They may be indefinitely +propagated by cuttings, so languid is the power of individuation, so +boundless that of reproduction. But the delicate jelly dissolves, as +lightly as it was formed, into its own product, and it is probable that +the Polynesia, as a future continent, will be the gigantic monument, not +so much of their life, as of the life of Nature in them. Here we may +observe the first instance of that general law, according to which Nature +still assimilates her extreme points. In these, her first and feeblest +attempts to animalize organization, it is latent, because undeveloped, and +merely potential; while, in the human brain, the last and most consummate +of her combined energies, it is again lost or disguised in the +subtlety(15) and multiplicity of its evolution. + +In the class immediately above (Mollusca) we find the individuals +separate, a more determinate form, and in the higher species, the rudiment +of nerves, as the first scarce distinguishable impress and exponent of +sensibility; still, however, the vegetative reproduction is the +predominant form; and even the nerves "which float in the same cavity with +the other viscera," are probably subservient to it, and extend their power +in the increased intensity of the reproductive force. Still prevails the +transitional state from the fluid to the solid; and the jelly, that +rudiment in which all animals, even the noblest, have their commencement; +constitutes the whole sphere of these rudimental animals. + +In the snail and muscle, the residuum of the coral reappears, but refined +and ennobled into a part of the animal. The whole class is characterised +by the separation of the fluid from the solid. On the one side, a +gelatinous semi-fluid; on the other side, an entirely inorganic, though +often a most exquisitely mechanised, calcareous excretion. + +Animalization in general is, we know, contra-distinguished from vegetables +in general by the predominance of azote in the chemical composition, and +of irritability in the organic process. But in this and the foregoing +classes, as being still near the common equator, or the punctum +indifferentiæ, the carbonic principle still asserts its claims, and the +force of reproduction struggles with that of irritability. In the +unreconciled strife of these two forces consists the character of the +_Vermes_, which appear to be the preparatory step for the next class. +Hence the difficulties which have embarrassed the naturalists, who adopt +the Linnæan classification, in their endeavours to discover determinate +characters of distinction between the vermes and the insecta. + +But no sooner have we passed the borders, than endless variety of form and +the bold display of instincts announce, that Nature has succeeded. She has +created the intermediate link between the vegetable world, as the product +of the reproductive or magnetic power, and the animal as the exponent of +sensibility. Those that live and are nourished, on the bodies of other +animals, are comparatively few, with little diversity of shape, and almost +all of the same natural family. These we may pass by as exceptions. But +the insect world, taken at large, appears as an intenser life, that has +struggled itself loose and become emancipated from vegetation, _Floræ +liberti, et libertini!_ If for the sake of a moment's relaxation we might +indulge a Darwinian flight, though at the risk of provoking a smile, (not, +I hope, a frown) from sober judgment, we might imagine the life of insects +an apotheosis of the petals, stamina, and nectaries, round which they +flutter, or of the stems and pedicles, to which they adhere. Beyond and +above this step, Nature seems to act with a sort of free agency, and to +have formed the classes from choice and bounty. Had she proceeded no +further, yet the whole vegetable, together with the whole insect creation, +would have formed within themselves an entire and independent system of +Life. All plants have insects, most commonly each genus of vegetables its +appropriate genera of insects; and so reciprocally interdependent and +necessary to each other are they, that we can almost as little think of +vegetation without insects, as of insects without vegetation. Though +probably the mere likeness of _shape_, in the _papilio_, and the +papilionaceous plants, suggested the idea of the former, as the latter in +a state of detachment, to our late poetical and theoretical brother; yet a +something, that approaches to a graver plausibility, is given to this +fancy of a flying blossom; when we reflect how many plants depend upon +insects for their fructification. Be it remembered, too, that with few and +very obscure exceptions, the irritable power and an analogon of voluntary +motion first dawn on us in the vegetable world, in the stamina, and +anthers, at the period of impregnation. Then, as if Nature had been +encouraged by the success of the first experiment, both the one and the +other appear as predominance and general character. THE INSECT WORLD IS +THE EXPONENT OF IRRITABILITY, AS THE VEGETABLE IS OF REPRODUCTION. + +With the ascent in power, the intensity of individuation keeps even pace; +and from this we may explain all the characteristic distinctions between +this class and that of the vermes. The almost homogeneous jelly of the +animalcula infusoria became, by a vital oxydation, granular in the polypi. +This granulation formed itself into distinct organs in the molluscæ; while +for the snails, which are the next step, the animalized lime, that seemed +the sole final cause of the life of the polypi, assumes all the characters +of an ulterior purpose. Refined into a horn-like substance, it becomes to +the snails the substitute of an organ, and their outward skeleton. Yet how +much more manifold and definite, the organization of an insect, than that +of the preceding class, the patient researches of Swammerdam and Lyonnet +have evinced, to the delight and admiration of every reflecting mind. + +In the insect, for the first time, we find the distinct commencement of a +separation between the exponents of sensibility and those of irritability; +_i.e._ between the _nervous_ and the _muscular_ system. The latter, +however, asserts its pre-eminence throughout. The prodigal provision of +organs for the purposes of respiration, and the marvellous powers which +numerous tribes of insects possess, of accommodating the most corrupted +airs, for a longer or shorter period, to the support of their +excitability, would of itself lead us to presume, that here the _vis +irritabilis_ is the reigning dynasty. There is here no confluence of +nerves into one reservoir, as evidence of the independent existence of +sensibility _as_ sensibility;--and therefore no counterpoise of a vascular +system, as a distinct exponent of the irritable pole. The whole +muscularity of these animals, is the organ of irritability; and the nerves +themselves are probably feeders of the motory power. The petty rills of +sensibility flow into the full expanse of irritability, and there lose +themselves. The nerves appertaining to the senses, on the other hand, are +indistinct, and comparatively unimportant. The multitude of immovable eyes +appear not so much conductors of light, as its ultimate recipient. We are +almost tempted to believe that they constitute, rather than subserve, +their sensorium. + +These eye-facets form the sense of light, rather than organs of seeing. +Their almost paradoxical number at least, and the singularity of their +forms, render it probable that they impel the animal by some modification +of its irritability, herein likewise containing a striking analogy to the +known influence of light on plants, than as excitements of sensibility. +The sense that is nearest akin to irritability, and which alone resides in +the muscular system, is that of touch, or feeling. This, therefore, is the +first sense that emerges. Being confined to absolute contact, it occupies +the lowest rank; but for that very reason it is the ground of all the +other senses, which act, according to the ratio of their ascent, at still +increasing distances, and become more and more ideal, from the tentacles +of the polypus, to the human eye; which latter might be defined the +outward organ of the identity, or at least of the indifference, of the +real and ideal. But as the calcareous residuum of the lowest class +approaches to the nature of horn in the snail, so the cumbrous shell of +the snail has been transformed into polished and moveable plates of +defensive armour in the insect. Thus, too, the same power of progressive +individuation articulates the tentacula of the polypus and holothuria into +antennæ; thereby manifesting the full emersion and eminency of +irritability as a power which acts in, and gives its own character to, +that of reproduction. The least observant must have noticed the +lightning-like rapidity with which the insect tribes devour and eliminate +their food, as by an instinctive necessity, and in the least degree for +the purposes of the animal's own growth or enlargement. The same +predominance of irritability, and at the same time a new start in +individuation, is shown in the reproductive power as generation. There is +now a regular projection, _ab intra ad extra_, for which neither sprouts +nor cuttings can any longer be the substitutes. We have not space for +further detail; but there is one point too strikingly illustrative and +even confirmative of the proposed system, to be omitted altogether. We +mean the curious fact, that the same characteristic tendency, _ad extra_, +which in the males and females of certain insect tribes is realized in the +functions of generation, conception, and parturiency, manifests and +expands itself in the _sexless_ individuals (which are always in this case +the great majority of the species), as instincts of art, and in the +construction of works completely detached and inorganic; while the +geometric regularity of these works, which bears an analogy to +crystallization, is demonstrably no more than the necessary result of +uniform action in a compressed multitude. + +Again, as the insect world, averaging the whole, comes nearest to plants, +(whose very essence is reproduction,) in the multitude of their germs; so +does it resemble plants in the sufficiency of a single impregnation for +the evolution of myriads of detached lives. Even so, the metamorphoses of +insects, from the egg to the maggot and caterpillar, and from these, +through the nympha and aurelia into the perfect insect, are but a more +individuated and intenser form of a similar transformation of the plant +from the seed-leaflets, or cotyledons, through the stalk, the leaves, and +the calyx, into the perfect flower, the various colours of which seem made +for the reflection of light, as the antecedent grade to the burnished +scales, and scale-like eyes of the insect. Nevertheless, with all this +seeming prodigality of organic power, the whole tendency is _ad extra_, +and the life of insects, as electricity in the quadrate, acts chiefly on +the superficies of their bodies, to which we may add the negative proof +arising from the absence of sensibility. It is well known, that the two +halves of a divided insect have continued to perform, or attempt, each +their separate functions, the trunkless head feeding with its accustomed +voracity, while the headless trunk has exhibited its appropriate +excitability to the sexual influence. + +The intropulsive force, that sends the ossification inward as to the +centre, is reserved for a yet higher step, and this we find embodied in +the class of _fishes_. Even here, however, the process still seems +imperfect, and (as it were) initiatory. The skeleton has left the surface, +indeed, but the bones approach to the nature of gristle. To feel the truth +of this, we need only compare the most perfect bone of a fish with the +thigh-bones of the mammalia, and the distinctness with which the latter +manifest the co-presence of the _magnetic_ power in its solid parietes, of +the _electrical_ in its branching arteries, and of the third greatest +power, viz., the _qualitative_ and interior, in its marrow. The senses of +fish are more distinct than those of insects. Thus, the intensity of its +sense of smell has been placed beyond doubt, and rises in the extent of +its sphere far beyond the irritable sense, or the feeling, in insects. I +say the _feeling_, not the touch; for the touch seems, as it were, a +supervention to the feeling, a perfection _given_ to it by the reaction of +the higher powers. As the feeling of the insect, in subtlety and virtual +distance, rises above the solitary sense of taste(16) in the mollusca, so +does the smell of the fish rise above the feeling of the insect. In the +fish, likewise, the eyes are single and moveable, while it is remarkable +that the only insect that possesses this latter privilege, is an +inhabitant of the waters. Finally, here first, unequivocally, and on a +_large_ scale, (for I pretend not to control the freedom, in which the +necessity of Nature is rooted, by the precise limits of a system,)--here +first, Nature exhibits, in the power of sensibility, the consummation of +those vital forms (the _nisus formativi_) the adequate and the sole +measure of which is to be sought for in their several organic products. +But as if a weakness of exhaustion had attended this advance in the same +moment it was made, Nature seems necessitated to fall back, and re-exert +herself on the lower ground which she had before occupied, that of the +vital magnetism, or the power of reproduction. The intensity of this +latter power in the fishes, is shown both in their voracity and in the +number of their eggs, which we are obliged to calculate by _weight_, not +by _tale_. There is an equal intensity both of the _immanent_ and the +_projective_ reproduction, in which, if we take in the comparative number +of individuals in each species, and likewise the different intervals +between the acts, the fish (it is probable) would be found to stand in a +similar relation to the insect, as the insect, in the latter point, stands +to the system of vegetation. Meantime, the fish sinks a step below the +insect, in the mode and circumstances of impregnation. To this we will +venture to add, the predominance of _length_, as the _form_ of growth in +so large a proportion of the known orders of fishes, and not less of their +rectilineal path of motion. In all other respects, the correspondence +combined with the progress in individuation, is striking in the whole +detail. Thus the eye, in addition to its moveability, has besides acquired +a saline moisture in its higher development, as accordant with the life of +its element. Add to these the glittering covering in both, the splendour +of the scales in the one answering to the brilliant plates in the +other,--the luminous reservoirs of the fire-flies,--the phosphorescence and +electricity of many fishes,--the same analogs of moral qualities, in their +rapacity, boldness, modes of seizing their prey by surprise,--their gills, +as presenting the intermediate state between the spiracula of the grade +next below, and the lungs of the step next above, both extremes of which +seem combined in the structure of birds and of their quill-feathers; but +above all, the convexity of the crystalline lens, so much greater than in +birds, quadrupeds, and man, and seeming to collect, in one powerful organ, +the hundred-fold microscopic facettes of the insect's _light_ organs; and +it will not be easy to resist the conviction, that the same power is at +work in both, and reappears under higher auspices. The intention of Nature +is repeated; but, as was to have been expected, with two main differences. + +First, that in the lower grade the reproductions themselves seem merged in +those of irritability, from the very circumstance that the latter +constitutes no pole, either to the former, or to sensibility. The force of +irritability acts, therefore, in the insect world, in full predominance; +while the emergence of sensibility in the fish calls forth the opposite +pole of reproduction, as a _distinct_ power, and causes therefore the +irritability to flow, in part, into the power of reproduction. The second +result of this ascent is the direction of the organizing power, _ad +intra_, with the consequent greater simplicity of the exterior form, and +the substitution of condensed and flexible force, with comparative unity +of implements, for that variety of tools, almost as numerous as the +several objects to which they are to be applied, which arises from, and +characterises, the superficial life of the insect creation. This grade of +ascension, however, like the former, is accompanied by an apparent +retrograde movement. For from this very accession of vital intensity we +must account for the absence in the fishes of all the formative, or rather +(if our language will permit it) _fabricative_ instincts. How could it be +otherwise? These instincts are the surplus and projection of the +organizing power in the direction _ad extra_, and could not, therefore, +have been expected in the class of animals that represent the first +intuitive effort of organization, and are themselves the product of its +first movement in the direction _ad intra_. But Nature never loses what +she has once learnt, though in the acquirement of each new power she +intermits, or performs less energetically, the act immediately preceding. +She often drops a faculty, but never fails to pick it up again. She may +seem forgetful and absent, but it is only to recollect herself with +_additional_, as well as _recruited_ vigour, in some after and higher +state; as if the sleep of powers, as well as of bodies, were the season +and condition of their growth. Accordingly, we find these instincts again, +and with them a wonderful synthesis of fish and insect, as a higher third, +in the feathered inhabitants of the air. Nay, she seems to have gone yet +further back, and having given B + C = D in the birds, so to have sported +with one solitary instance of B + D = A in that curious animal the dragon, +the anatomy of which has been recently given to the public by Tiedemann; +from whose work it appears, that this creature presents itself to us with +the wings of the insect, and with the nervous system, the brain, and the +cranium of the bird, in their several rudiments. + +The synthesis of fish and insect in the birds, might be illustrated +equally in detail with the former; but it will be sufficient for our +purpose, that as in both the former cases, the insect and the fish, so +here in that of the birds, the powers are under the predominance of +irritability; the sensibility being dormant in the first, awakening in the +second, and awake, but still subordinate, in the third. Of this my limits +confine me to a single presumptive proof, viz., the superiority in +strength and courage of the female in the birds of prey. For herein, +indeed, does the difference of the sexes universally consist, wherever +both the forces are developed, that the female is characterised by quicker +irritability, and the male by deeper sensibility. How large a stride has +been now made by Nature in the progress of individuation, what +ornithologist does not know? From a multitude of instances we select the +most impressive, the power of sound, with the first rudiments of +modulation! That all languages designate the melody of birds as singing +(though according to Blumenbach man only sings, while birds do but +whistle), demonstrates that it has been felt as, what indeed it is, a +tentative and prophetic prelude of something yet to come. With this +conjoin the power and the tendency to acquire articulation, and to imitate +speech; conjoin the building instinct and the migratory, the monogamy of +several species, and the pairing of almost all; and we shall have +collected new instances of the usage (I dare not say law) according to +which Nature lets fall, in order to resume, and steps backward the +furthest, when she means to leap forwards with the greatest concentration +of energy. + +For lo! in the next step of ascent the power of sensibility has assumed +her due place and rank: her minority is at an end, and the complete and +universal presence of a nervous system unites absolutely, by instanteity +of time what, with the due allowances for the transitional process, had +before been either lost in sameness, or perplexed by multiplicity, or +compacted by a finer mechanism. But with this, all the analogies with +which Nature had delighted us in the preceding step seem lost, and, with +the single exception of that more than valuable, that estimable +philanthropist, the dog, and, perhaps, of the horse and elephant, the +analogies to ourselves, which we can discover in the quadrupeds or +quadrumani, are of our vices, our follies, and our imperfections. The +facts in confirmation of both the propositions are so numerous and so +obvious, the advance of Nature, under the predominance of the third +synthetic power, both in the intensity of life and in the intenseness and +extension of individuality, is so undeniable, that we may leap forward at +once to the highest realization and reconciliation of both her tendencies, +that of the most perfect detachment with the greatest possible union, to +that last work, in which Nature did not assist as handmaid under the eye +of her sovereign Master, who made Man in his own image, by superadding +self-consciousness with self-government, and breathed into him a living +soul. + +The class of _Vermes_ deposit a calcareous stuff, as if it had torn loose +from the earth a piece of the gross mass which it must still drag about +with it. In the insect class this residuum has refined itself. In the +fishes and amphibia it is driven back or inward, the organic power begins +to be intuitive, and sensibility appears. In the birds the bones have +become hollow; while, with apparent proportional recess, but, in truth, by +the excitement of the opposite pole, their exterior presents an actual +vegetation. The bones of the mammalia are filled up, and their coverings +have become more simple. Man possesses the most perfect osseous structure, +the least and most insignificant covering. The whole force of organic +power has attained an inward and centripetal direction. He has the whole +world in counterpoint to him, but he contains an entire world within +himself. Now, for the first time at the apex of the living pyramid, it is +Man and Nature, but Man himself is a syllepsis, a compendium of Nature--the +Microcosm! Naked and helpless cometh man into the world. Such has been the +complaint from eldest time; but we complain of our chief privilege, our +ornament, and the connate mark of our sovereignty. _Porphyrigeniti sumus_! +In Man the centripetal and individualizing tendency of all Nature is +itself concentred and individualized--he is a revelation of Nature! +Henceforward, he is referred to himself, delivered up to his own charge; +and he who stands the most on himself, and stands the firmest, is the +truest, because the most individual, Man. In social and political life +this acme is inter-dependence; in moral life it is independence; in +intellectual life it is genius. Nor does the form of polarity, which has +accompanied the law of individuation up its whole ascent, desert it here. +As the height, so the depth. The intensities must be at once opposite and +equal. As the liberty, so must be the reverence for law. As the +independence, so must be the service and the submission to the Supreme +Will! As the ideal genius and the originality, in the same proportion must +be the resignation to the real world, the sympathy and the inter-communion +with Nature. In the conciliating mid-point, or equator, does the Man live, +and only by its equal presence in both its poles can that life be +manifested! + + * * * * * + +If it had been possible, within the prescribed limits of this essay, to +have deduced the philosophy of Life synthetically, the evidence would have +been carried over from section to section, and the _quod erat +demonstrandum_ at the conclusion of one section would reappear as the +principle of the succeeding--the goal of the one would be the starting-post +of the other. Positions arranged in my own mind, as intermediate and +organic links of administration, must be presented to the reader in the +first instance, at least, as a mere hypothesis. Instead of demanding his +assent as a right, I must solicit a suspension of his judgment as a +courtesy; and, after all, however firmly the hypothesis may support the +phenomena piled upon it, we can deduce no more than a practical rule, +grounded on a strong presumption. The license of arithmetic, however, +furnishes instances that a rule may be usefully applied in practice, and +for the particular purpose may be sufficiently authenticated by the +result, before it has itself been duly demonstrated. It is enough, if only +it hath been rendered fully intelligible. + +In a system where every position proceeds from a scientific +preconstruction, a power acting exclusively in length, would be magnetism +by virtue of our own definition of the term. In like manner, a surface +power would be electricity, as far as that system was concerned, whether +it accorded or not with the facts ordinarily so called. But it is +incumbent on us, who must treat the subject _analytically_, to show by +experiment that magnetism does in fact act longitudinally, and electricity +superficially; and that, consequently, the former is distinguished from, +and yet contained in, the latter, as a straight line is distinguished +from, yet contained in, a superficies. + +First, that magnetism, in its conductors, seeks and follows length only, +and by the length is itself conducted, has been proved by Brugmans, in his +philosophical Essay on the Matter of Magnetism, where he relates that a +magnet capable of supporting a body four times heavier than itself, and +which acted as a magnetic needle at the distance of twenty inches, was so +weakened by the interposition of three cast-iron plates of considerable +thickness, as scarcely to move the magnetic needle from its place at a +distance of only three inches. A similar experiment had been made by +Descartes. I concluded, therefore, said Brugmans, that if the iron plates +were interposed between the magnet and the needle lengthways, instead of +breadthways or right across, the action of the magnet on the magnetic +needle would, in consequence of this great increase of resistance, become +still weaker, or perhaps evanescent. But not less to my surprise than my +admiration, I found that the power of the magnet was so far from being +_diminished_ by this change in the relative position of the iron-plates; +that, on the contrary, it now extended to a far greater distance than when +no iron at all was interposed. Some time after the same philosopher, out +of several iron bars, the sides of which were an inch broad each, composed +a single bar of the length of more than ten feet, and observed the +magnetism make its way through the whole mass. But, in order to try +whether the action could be propagated to any length indefinitely, after +several experiments with bars of intermediate lengths, in all of which he +had succeeded, he tried a four-cornered iron rod, more than twenty feet +long, and it was at this length that the magnetic power first began to be +diminished. So far Brugmans. + +But the shortest way for any one to convince himself of this relation of +the magnetic power would be, in one and the same experiment, to interpose +the same piece of iron between the magnet and the compass needle first +_breadthways_; and in this case it will be found that the needle, which +had been previously deflected by the magnet from its natural position at +one of its poles, will instantly resume the same, either wholly or very +nearly so--then to interpose the same piece of iron _lengthways_; in which +case the position of the compass needle will be scarcely or not at all +affected. + +The assertion of Bernoulli and others, that the absolute force of the +artificial magnet increases in the ratio of its superficies, stands +corrected in the far more accurate experiments of Coulomb (published in +his Treatise on Magnetism), which proves that the increase takes place (in +a far greater degree) in the ratio of its length. The same naturalist even +found means to determine that the directing powers of the needle, which he +had measured by help of his _balance de tortion_, stand to the length of +the needle in such a ratio as that, provided only the length of the needle +is from forty to fifty times its diameter, the momenta of these directing +powers will increase in the very same direct proportion as the length is +increased. Nor is this all that may be deduced from the experiment last +mentioned. If only the magnet be strong enough, it will show likewise that +magnetism _seeks_ the length. The proof is contained in the remarkable +fact, that the iron interposed between the magnet and the magnetic needle +_breadthways_ constantly acquires its two opposite poles at both ends +_lengthways_. Though the preceding experiments are abundantly sufficient +to prove the position, yet the following deserves mention for the +beautiful clearness of its evidence. If the magnetic power is determined +exclusively by length, it is to be expected that it will manifest no +force, where the piece of iron is of such a shape that no one dimension +predominates. Bring a _cube_ of iron near the magnetic needle and it will +not exert the slightest degree of power beyond what belongs to it as mere +iron. By the perfect equality of the dimensions, the magnetism of the +earth appears, as it were, perplexed and doubtful. Now, then attach a +second cube of iron to the first, and the instantaneous act of the iron on +the magnetic needle will make it manifest that with the length thus given, +the magnetic influence is given at the same moment. + +That electricity, on the other hand, does not act in length merely, is +clear, from the fact that every electric body is electric over its whole +surface. But that electricity acts both in length and breadth, and _only_ +in length and breadth, and not in depth; in short, that the (so-called) +electrical fluid in an electrified body spreads over the whole surface of +that body without penetrating it, or tending _ad intra_, may be proved by +direct experiment. Take a cylinder of wood, and bore an indefinite number +of holes in it, each of them four lines in depth and four in diameter. +Electrify this cylinder, and present to its superficies a small square of +gold-leaf, held to it by an insulating needle of gum lac, and bring this +square to an electrometer of great sensibility. The electrometer will +instantly show an electricity in the gold-leaf, similar to that of the +cylinder which had been brought into contact with it. The square of +gold-leaf having thus been discharged of its electricity, put it carefully +into one of the holes of the cylinder, _so_, namely, that it shall touch +only the bottom of the hole, and present it again to the electrometer. It +will be then found that the electrometer will exhibit no signs of +electricity whatsoever. From this it follows, that the electricity which +had been communicated to the cylinder had confined itself to the +_surface_. + +If the time and the limit prescribed would admit, we could multiply +experiments, all tending to prove the same law; but we must be content +with the barely sufficient. But that the _chemical process_ acts in +_depth_, and first, therefore, _realizes_ and integrates the fluxional +power of magnetism and electricity, is involved in the _term_ composition; +and this will become still more convincing when we have learnt to regard +_decomposition_ as a mere co-relative, _i.e._ as decomposition relatively +to the body decomposed, but composition _actually_ and in respect of the +substances, _into_ which it was decomposed. The alteration in the specific +gravity of metals in their chemical amalgams, interesting as the fact is +in all points, is _decisive_ in the present; for gravity is the sole +_inward_ of inorganic bodies--it _constitutes_ their depth. + +I can now, for the first time, give to my opinions that degree of +intelligibility, which is requisite for their introduction as hypotheses; +the experiments above related, understood as in the common mode of +thinking, prove that the magnetic influence flows in length, the electric +fluid by suffusion, and that chemical agency (whatever the main agent may +be) is qualitative and _in intimis_. Now my hypothesis demands the +converse of all this. I affirm that a power, acting exclusively in length, +is (wherever it be found) _magnetism_; that a power which acts _both_ in +length and in breadth, and _only_ in length and breadth, is (wherever it +be found) _electricity_; and finally, that a power which, together with +length and breadth, includes depth likewise, is (wherever it be found) +_constructive agency_. That is but _one_ phenomenon of magnetism, to which +we have appropriated and confined the term magnetism; because of all the +natural bodies at present known, iron, and one or two of its nearest +relatives in the family of hard yet coherent metals, are the only ones, in +which all the conditions are collected, under which alone the magnetic +agency can appear in and during the act itself. When, therefore, I affirm +the power of reproduction in organized bodies to be magnetism, I must be +understood to mean that this power, as it exists in the magnet, and which +we there (to use a strong phrase) catch in the very act, is to the same +kind of power, working as reproductive, what the root is to the cube of +that root. We no more confound the force in the compass needle with that +of reproduction, than a man can be said to confound his liver with a +lichen, because he affirms that both of them grow. + +The same precautions are to be repeated in the identification of +electricity with irritability; and the power of depth, for which we have +yet no appropriated term, with sensibility. How great the distance is in +all, and that the lowest degrees are adopted as the exponent terms, not +for their own sakes, but merely because they may be used with less hazard +of diverting the attention from the _kind_ by peculiar properties arising +out of the degree, is evident from the third instance, unless the theorist +can be supposed insane enough to apply sensation in good earnest to the +effervescence of an acid or an alkali, or to sympathise with the +distresses of a vat of new beer when it is working. In whatever way the +subject could be treated, it must have remained unintelligible to men who, +if they think of space at all, abstract their notion of it from the +contents of an exhausted receiver. With this, and with an ether, such men +may work wonders; as what, indeed, cannot be done with a plenum and a +vacuum, when a theorist has privileged himself to assume the one, or the +other, _ad libitum_?--in all innocence of heart, and undisturbed by the +reflection that the two things cannot both be true. That both time and +space are mere abstractions I am well aware; but I know with equal +certainty that what is _expressed_ by them as the _identity_ of both is +the highest reality, and the root of all power, the power to suffer, as +well as the power to act. However mere an _ens logicum_ space may be, the +_dimensions_ of space are real, and the works of Galileo, in more than one +elegant passage, prove with what awe and amazement they fill the mind that +worthily contemplates them. Dismissing, therefore, all facts of degrees, +as introduced merely for the purposes of illustration, I would make as +little reference as possible to the magnet, the charged phial, or the +processes of the laboratory, and designate the three powers in the process +of our animal life, each by two co-relative terms, the one expressing the +_form_, and the other the _object_ and _product_ of the power. My +hypothesis will, therefore, be thus expressed, that the constituent forces +of life in the human living body are--first, the power of length, or +REPRODUCTION; second, the power of surface (that is, length and breadth), +or IRRITABILITY; third, the power of depth, or SENSIBILITY. With this +observation I may conclude these remarks, only reminding the reader that +Life itself is neither of these separately, but the copula of all +three--that Life, _as_ Life, supposes a positive or universal principle in +Nature, with a negative principle in every particular animal, the latter, +or limitative power, constantly acting to individualize, and, as it were, +_figure_ the former. _Thus_, then, Life itself is not a _thing_--a +self-subsistent _hypostasis_--but an _act_ and _process_; which, pitiable +as the prejudice will appear to the _forts esprits_, is a great deal more +than either my reason would authorise or my conscience allow me to +assert--concerning the Soul, as the principle both of Reason and +Conscience. + + + + + +ADVERTISEMENTS. + + +_October, 1848._ Works on Medicine and Science +Published by John Churchill. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Golding Bird, F.R.S. The Diagnosis, Pathological Indications And +Treatment of Urinary Deposits. With Engravings on Wood. Second Edition. +Post 8vo. cloth, 8_s._ 6_d._ By The Same Author. Elements of Natural +Philosophy; being an Experimental Introduction to the Study of the +Physical Sciences. Illustrated with several Hundred Wood-cuts. Third +Edition. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 12_s._ 6_d._ + + * * * * * + +Mr. Beasley. The Pocket Formulary and Synopsis of The British And Foreign +Pharmacopoeias; comprising Standard and Improved Formulæ for the +Preparations and Compounds employed in Medical Practice. Fourth Edition, +corrected and enlarged. 18mo. cloth, 6_s._ + + * * * * * + +Dr. Henry Bennett. A Practical Treatise on Inflammation, Ulceration, And +Induration of the Neck of The Uterus; with Remarks on Leucorrhoea and +Prolapsus Uteri, as Symptoms of this form of Disease. 8vo. cloth, 6_s._ + + * * * * * + +Dr. Budd, F.R.S. On Diseases of the Liver; illustrated with Coloured +Plates and Engravings on Wood. 8vo. cloth, 14_s._ + + * * * * * + +Sir James Clark, Bart., M.D. On The Sanative Influence of Climate. With an +Account of the best Places of Resort for Invalids in England, the South of +Europe, &c. Fourth Edition, revised. Post 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._ + + * * * * * + +Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. +A Manual of Physiology; specially designed for the Use of Students. With +numerous Illustrations on Steel and Wood. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 12_s._ 6_d._ +Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. Principles of General and Comparative Physiology; +intended as an Introduction to the Study of Human Physiology, and as a +Guide to the Philosophical Pursuit of Natural History. Illustrated with +numerous Figures on Copper and Wood. The Second Edition. 8vo. cloth, +18_s._ By The Same Author. Principles of Human Physiology. numerous +Illustrations on Steel and Wood. Third Edition. One thick 8vo. vol. 21_s._ + + * * * * * + +Sir Astley Cooper, Bart., F.R.S. A Treatise on Dislocations and Fractures +of the Joints. Edited by Bransby b. Cooper, F.R.S. 8vo. cloth, 20_s._ Sir +Astley Cooper left very considerable additions in MS. for the express +purpose of being introduced into this Edition. By The Same Author. +Observations on the Structure and Diseases of the Testis. Illustrated with +Twenty-four highly-finished coloured Plates. Second Edition. Royal 4to. +cloth. _Reduced from_ 3_l._ 3_s. to_ 1_l._ 10_s._ + + * * * * * + +Dr. Conolly. The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and +Hospitals for the Insane. With Plans, post 8vo. cloth, 6_s._ + + * * * * * + +Mr. Cooley. Comprehensive Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia The Cyclopædia of +Practical Receipts, and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, +and Trades, Including Medicine, Pharmacy, and Domestic Economy; designed +as a Compendious Book of Reference for the Manufacturer, Tradesman, +Amateur, and Heads of Families. Second Edition, in one thick volume of 800 +pages. 8vo. cloth, 14_s._ + + * * * * * + +Mr. Fergusson, F.R.S.E. A System of Practical Surgery; with numerous +Illustrations on Wood. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 12_s._ 6_d._ Mr. +Churchill's Publications. Mr. Fownes, PH. D., F.R.S. A Manual of +Chemistry; with numerous Illustrations on Wood. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. +cloth, 12_s._ 6_d._ "An admirable exposition of the present state of +chemical science, simply and clearly written."--_British and Foreign +Medical Review._ By The Same Author. Introduction to Qualitative Analysis. +Post 8vo. cloth, 2_s._ + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 Mr. Abernethy. + + 2 Experiment, as an organ of reason, not less distinguished from the + blind or dreaming industry of the alchemists, than it was + successfully opposed to the barren subtleties of the schoolmen. + + 3 Whose own mind, however, was not comprehended in the vortex; where + Kepler erred it was in the other extreme. + + 4 But still less would I avail myself of its acknowledged + inappropriateness to the purposes of physiology, in order to cast a + self-complacent sneer on the soul itself, and on all who believe in + its existence. First, because in my opinion it would be impertinent; + secondly, because it would be imprudent and injurious to the + character of my profession; and, lastly, because it would argue an + irreverence to the feelings of mankind, which I deem scarcely + compatible with a good heart, and a degree of arrogance and + presumption which I have never found, except in company with a + corrupt taste and a shallow capacity. + + 5 Vide Lawrence's Lecture. + + 6 Joh. Bapt. a Vico, Neapol. Reg. eloq. Professor, de antiquissima + Itallorum sapientia ex lingua Latina originibus aruendâ: libri tres. + Neap., 1710. + + 7 The object I have proposed to myself, and wherein its distinction + exists, may be thus illustrated. A complex machine is presented to + the common view, the moving power of which is hidden. Of those who + are studying and examining it, one man fixes his attention on some + one application of that power, on certain effects produced by that + particular application, and on a certain part of the structure + evidently appropriated to the production of these effects, neither + the one or other of which he had discovered in a neighbouring + machine, which he at the same time asserts to be quite distinct from + the former, and to be moved by a power altogether different, though + many of the works and operations are, he admits, common to both + machines. In this supposed peculiarity he places the essential + character of the former machine, and defines it by the presence of + that which is, or which he supposes to be, absent in the latter. + Supposing that a stranger to both were about to visit the two + machines, this peculiarity would be so far useful as that it might + enable him to distinguish the one from the other, and thus to look + in the proper place for whatever else he had heard remarkable + concerning either; not that he or his informant would understand the + machine any better or otherwise, than the common character of a + whole class in the nomenclature of botany would enable a person to + understand all, or any one of the plants contained in that class. + But if, on the other hand, the machine in question were such as no + man was a stranger to, if even the supposed peculiarity, either by + its effects, or by the construction of that portion of the works + which produced them, were equally well known to all men, in this + case we can conceive no use at all of such a definition; for at the + best it could only be admitted as a definition for the purposes of + nomenclature, which never adds to knowledge, although it may often + facilitate its communication. But in this instance it would be + nomenclature misplaced, and without an object. Such appears to me to + be the case with all those definitions which place the essence of + Life in nutrition, contractility, &c. As the second instance, I will + take the inventor and maker of the machine himself, who knows its + moving power, or perhaps himself constitutes it, who is, as it were, + the soul of the work, and in whose mind all its parts, with all + their bearings and relations, had pre-existed long before the + machine itself had been put together. In him therefore there would + reside, what it would be presumption to attempt to acquire, or to + pretend to communicate, the most perfect insight not only of the + machine itself, and of all its various operations, but of its + ultimate principle and its essential causes. The mysterious ground, + the efficient causes of vitality, and whether different lives differ + absolutely or only in degree, He alone can know who not only said, + "Let the earth bring forth the living creature, the beast of the + earth after his kind, and it was so;" but who said, "Let us make man + in our image, who himself breathed into his nostrils the breath of + Life, and man became a living soul." + + The third case which I would apply to my own attempt would be that + of the inquirer, who, presuming to know nothing of the power that + moves the whole machine, takes those parts of it which are presented + to his view, seeks to reduce its various movements to as few and + simple laws of motion as possible, and out of their separate and + conjoint action proceeds to explain and appropriate the structure + and relative positions of the works. In obedience to the + canon,--"Principia non esse multiplicanda præter summam necessitatem + cui suffragamur non ideo quia causalem in mundo unitatem vel ratione + vel experientiâ perspiciamus, sed illam ipsam indagamus impulsu + intellectûs, qui tantundem sibi in explicatione phænomenorum + profecisse videtur quantum ab codem principio ad plurima rationata + descendere ipsi concessum est." + + 8 The arborescent forms on a frosty morning, to be seen on the window + and pavement, must have _some_ relation to the more perfect forms + developed in the vegetable world. + + 9 Thus we may say that whatever is organized from without, is a + product of mechanism; whatever is mechanised from within, is a + production of organization. + + 10 "The matter that surrounds us is divided into two great classes, + living and dead; the latter is governed by physical laws, such as + attraction, gravitation, chemical affinity; and it exhibits physical + properties, such as cohesion, elasticity, divisibility, &c. Living + matter also exhibits these properties, and is subject, in great + measure, to physical laws. But living bodies are endowed moreover + with a set of properties altogether different from these, and + contrasting with them very remarkably." (Vide Lawrence's Lectures, + p. 121.) + + 11 Much against my will I repeat this scholastic term, _multeity_, but + I have sought in vain for an unequivocal word of a less repulsive + character, that would convey the notion in a positive and not + comparative sense in kind, as opposed to the _unum et simplex_, not + in degree, as contracted with the _few_. We can conceive no reason + that can be adduced in justification of the word _caloric_, as + invented to distinguish the external cause of the sensation heat, + which would not equally authorise the introduction of a technical + term in this instance. + + 12 For abstractions are the conditions and only subject of all abstract + sciences. Thus the theorist (vide Dalton's Theory), who reduces the + chemical process to the positions of atoms, would doubtless thereby + render chemistry calculable, but that he commences by destroying the + chemical process itself, and substitutes for it a _mote dance_ of + abstractions; for even the powers which he appears to leave real, + those of attraction and repulsion, he immediately unrealizes by + representing them as diverse and separable properties. We can + abstract the quantities and the quantitative motion from masses, + passing over or leaving for other sciences the question of what + constitutes the masses, and thus apply not to the masses themselves, + but to the abstractions therefrom,--the laws of geometry and + universal arithmetic. And where the quantities are the infallible + signs of real powers, and our chief concern with the masses is as + SIGNS, sciences may be founded thereon of the highest use and + dignity. Such, for instance, is the sublime science of astronomy, + having for its objects the vast masses which "God placed in the + firmament of the heaven to be for _signs_ and for seasons, for days + and years." For the whole doctrine of physics may be reduced to + three great divisions: First, _quantitative motion_, which is + proportioned to the quantity of matter exclusively. This is the + science of weight or statics. Secondly, _relative motion_, as + communicated to bodies externally by impact. This is the science of + mechanics. Thirdly, _qualitative motion_, or that which is accordant + to properties of matter. And this is chemistry. Now it is evident + that the first two sciences presuppose that which forms the + exclusive object of the third, namely, quality; for all quantity in + nature is either itself derived, or at least derives its powers from + some _quality_, as that of weight, specific cohesion, hardness, &c.; + and therefore the attempt to reduce to the distances or impacts of + atoms, under the assumptions of two powers, which are themselves + declared to be no more than mere general terms for those quantities + of motion and impact (the atom itself being a fiction formed by + abstraction, and in truth a third occult quality for the purpose of + explaining hardness and density), amounts to an attempt to destroy + chemistry itself, and at the same time to exclude the sole reality + and only positive contents of the very science into which that of + chemistry is to be degraded. Now what qualities are to chemistry, + _productiveness_ is to the science of Life; and this being excluded, + physiology or zoonomy would sink into chemistry, chemistry by the + same process into mechanics, while mechanics themselves would lose + the substantial principle, which, bending the lower extreme towards + its apex, produces the organic circle of the sciences, and elevates + them all into different arcs or stations of the one absolute science + of Life. + + This explanation, which in appearance only is a digression, was + indispensably requisite to prevent the idea of polarity, which has + been given as the universal law of Life, from being misunderstood as + a mere refinement on those mechanical systems of physiology, which + it has been my main object to explode. + + 13 I apprehend that by men of a certain school it would be deemed no + demerit, even though they should never have condescended to look + into any system of Aristotelian logic. It is enough for these + gentlemen that they are experimentalists! Let it not, however, be + supposed that they make more experiments than their neighbours, who + consider induction as a means and not an end; or have stronger + motives for making them, unless it can be believed that Tycho Brähe + must have been urged to repeat his sweeps of the heavens with + greater accuracy and industry than Herschel, for no better reason + than that the former flourished before the theory of gravitation was + perfected. No, but they have the honour of being mere + experimentalists! If, however, we may not refer to logic, we may to + common sense and common experience. It is not improbable, however, + that they have both read and studied a book of hypothetical + psychology on the assumptions of the crudest materialism, stolen too + without acknowledgment from our David Hartley's essay on Man, which + is well known under the whimsical name of Condillac's Logic. But, as + Mr. Brand has lately observed, "the French are a queer people," and + we should not be at all surprised to hear of a book of fresh + importation from Paris, on determinate proportions in chemistry, + announced by the author in his title-page as a new and improved + system either of arithmetic or geometry. + + 14 Such is the interpretation given by Lord Bacon. To which of the two + gigantic intellects, the poet's or philosophic commentator's, the + allegory belongs, I shall not presume to decide. Its extraordinary + beauty and appropriateness remains the same in either case. + + 15 The Anatomical Demonstrations of the Brain, by Dr. Spurzheim, which + I have seen, presented to me the most satisfactory proof of this. + + 16 The remark on the feeling of the antennæ, compared with the touch of + man, or even of the half-reasoning elephant, is yet more applicable + to the taste, which in these gelatinous animals might, perhaps not + inappropriately, be entitled the gastric sense. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS TOWARDS THE FORMATION OF A MORE COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF LIFE.*** + + + +CREDITS + + +January 17, 2008 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Bryan Ness, David King, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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