The fact is that every organic form, whether plant or animal, derived
from the protoplasmic compounds of carbon-dixoide, ammonia and water,
is, as Mr. Drummond puts it,[1] "made of materials which have once 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.