Now, all the instances adduced by our author, to show similarity of action in the organic and the inorganic world, are irrelevant. The analogies are not merely imperfect; they are no analogies at all. Crystals increase by the aggregation of new particles on the external surfaces of the parts already formed; there is no consentaneous operation of the parts on the whole. The molecules of crystals are homogeneous throughout, and the several aggregates of these molecules are independent of each other; while organized bodies are composed of parts perfectly dissimilar from each other, but all of which conspire to one end. "The growth of organized bodies," says Mueller, "takes place in all particles of their substance at the same time, while the increase of the mass in inorganic bodies is produced by external apposition." Frostwork on the windows may resemble vegetable _forms_; but it has no resemblance whatever to vegetable _life_. Electricity may counterfeit the _action of life_, for a moment, on a particular limb, by causing the muscles to twitch; but it does not counterfeit _life itself_, by causing all the parts again to contribute to the sustentation of the whole. A French chemist, by electric action, may have produced _globules_ in albumen; there is nothing very wonderful in that; any one may blow bubbles in a viscid fluid. The resemblance between these globules and proper germinal vesicles amounts to nothing more than similarity of outward shape; there is no more real resemblance between them than between the oval lump of chalk which farmers sometimes put into a hen's nest, in order to deceive poor Dame Partlet, and the real egg which the hen deposits by the side of it. Certainly, the imponderable agents, heat, light, and electricity, are in some mysterious way _connected with_ life, so as to contribute to its support; there is nothing more in this assertion than in the familiar proposition, that a seed will germinate only under the proper conditions of soil and climate; but that these agents, acting on inorganic matter, ever _create_ or _commence_ life is a pure hypothesis, not supported even by the shadow of a fact. Having thus shown how weak are the general considerations in favor of the theory, that animated beings may be created out of inorganic matter by mere natural laws, we should proceed to consider the direct evidence adduced to prove that life has actually been produced in this way. Here the whole question is opened respecting the alleged instances of equivocal generation, and we have neither space nor ability to discuss them at length. Those who are curious respecting the question may find a brief summary of the evidence on both sides in a former number of this Journal.[1] We can mention only a few facts and arguments, which show the extreme improbability of the doctrine supported by our author and a few other theorists.