ring sweetness, holiness, abounding charity, and
self-sacrifice by the other. Religion, in fact, varies with the
nature upon which it falls. Often unreasonable, if not contemptible,
prayer, in its purer forms, hints at disciplines which few of us can
neglect without moral loss. But no good can come of giving it a
delusive value, by claiming for it a power in physical nature. It may
strengthen the heart to meet life's losses, and thus indirectly
promote physical well-being, as the digging of Aesop's orchard brought
a treasure of fertility greater than the golden treasure sought. Such
indirect issues we all admit; but it would be simply dishonest to
affirm that it is such issues that are always in view. Here, for the
present, I must end. I ask no space to reply to those railers who
make such free use of the terms insolence, outrage, profanity, and
blasphemy. They obviously lack the sobriety of mind necessary to give
accuracy to their statements, or to render their charges worthy of
serious refutation.

********************

IV. VITALITY.

THE origin, growth, and energies of living things are subjects which
have always engaged the attention of thinking men. To account for
them it was usual to assume a special agent, free to a great extent
from the limitations observed among the powers of inorganic nature.
This agent was called _vital force_; and, under its influence, plants
and animals were supposed to collect their materials and to assume
determinate forms. Within the last few years, however, our ideas of
vital processes have undergone profound modifications; and the
interest, and even disquietude, which the change has excited are amply
evidenced by the discussions and protests which are now common,
regarding the phenomena of vitality. In tracing these phenomena
through all their modifications, the most advanced philosophers of the
present day declare that they ultimately arrive at a single source of
power, from which all vital energy is derived; and the disquieting
circumstance is that this source is not the direct fiat of a
supernatural agent, but a reservoir of what, if we do not accept the
creed of Zoroaster, must be regarded as inorganic force. In short, it
is considered as proved that all the energy which we derive from
plants and animals is drawn from the sun.

A few years ago, when the sun was affirmed to be the source of life,
nine out of ten of those who are alarmed by the form which