been
inorganic. An organizing principle, not belonging to their kingdom, lays
hold of them and elaborates them."

[Footnote 1: "Natural Law," p. 233.]

Thus by the introduction of LIFE we have a vastly enlarged horizon.
Before, in the organic world, we had only the "principle" of solidifying
or crystallizing, liquefying, and turning to gas or vapour, ever
stopping when the state was attained. Or if a combination was in
progress, still the result was only a rearrangement of the same bulk of
materials (however new the form) in solid, liquid, or gas, but no
increase, no nutrition, no reproduction. In the organic world we have
something so different, that whether we talk of "property" or
"principle," the things are entirely distinct.

The essential difference, stated as regards the mere facts of
irritability or motion, nutrition and reproduction, is so grandly
sufficient in itself, that one almost regrets to have to add on the
other facts which further emphasize the distinction between _life_ and
any _property_ of matter. But these further facts are highly important
as regards another part of the argument. For while what has just been
said almost demonstrates the necessity of a Giver of Life from a kingdom
outside the organic, the further facts point irresistibly to the
conclusion that we must predicate more about the Giver of Life that we
can of an abstract and unknown Cause.

The original protoplasm, when dead, is undistinguishable by the eye, by
chemical test, or by the microscope, from the same protoplasm when
living; and living protoplasm, again, may be either animal or vegetable.
Both are in every respect (externally) absolutely identical. Yet the one
will only develop into a _plant_, the other only into an _animal._ Nor
does it diminish the significance of the fact to say that the
differentiation is _now_ fixed by heredity. If we suppose protoplasm to
be only a fortuitous combination of elements, what secondary or common
natural cause will account for its acquisition of the fixed difference?
It is true that some forms of plants exhibit some functions that closely
approach the functions of what we call animal life; but, as we shall see
presently, there is no evidence whatever that there is any bridge
between the two--we have no proof that a plant ever develops into an
animal. Here is one of the gaps which the theory of Evolution, true as
it is to a certain extent, cannot bridge over; and we must not overlook
th