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.