CHAPTER IV.
THE VICTIM.
"My dear Leon," said M.Renault, "you remind me of a college commencement.

We have listened to your dissertation just as they listen to the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are always in the audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a minority which understands nothing of it.

But every body listens patiently, on account of the sensations which are to come by and by.

M.Martout and I are acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his distinguished pupil, M.Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is in them, if you intended to speak for our benefit; and you have not said enough that is in them for these ladies and gentlemen who know nothing of the existing discussions regarding the vital and organic principles.
"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts them into play?
Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result of organization--the play of various functions of organized matter?
This is a problem of the highest importance, which would interest the ladies themselves, if one were to place it plainly before them.

It would be sufficient to say: 'We inquire whether there is a vital principle--the source of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the result of the regular play of the organs?
The vital principle, in the eyes of Meiser and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say, one could not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade when they are desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.' Now, if there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moral theories which have been hypothecated on its existence, must be reconstructed.