THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 69 



kind of entity or self-existent principle. But whilst 

 we say that Life is a result of organization, we do 

 not necessarily mean of an organization which is 

 capable of being discovered by means of our micro- 

 scopes rather, of a molecular organization, in the 

 sense of a peculiarly complex and unstable colloca- 

 tion of the component atoms of the matter displaying 

 Life, which may exist to perfection after its own 

 fashion, even in what appears to be the perfectly 

 structureless jelly-mass constituting one of the Prot- 

 amcebz of Professor Haeckel. And it is important to 

 keep this difference in view to remember that the 

 only organization necessary for the display of Life is 

 .a molecular organization which, in the common accep- 

 tation of the term, has often been regarded as no or- 

 ganization at all. Mr. Lewes says, c Although the 

 question whether Life precedes Organization has been 

 often asked, it is a question mal posee. If by organiza- 

 tion we are to understand not simply organic substance, 

 but a more or less complex arrangement of that sub- 

 stance into separate organs, the question is tantamount 

 to asking whether the simplest animals and plants have 

 life ? And to ask the question whether Life precedes 

 organic substance, is tantamount to asking whether the 

 convex surface of a curve precedes the concave, or 

 whether the motions of a body precede the body V If 

 the word c organization 5 is comprehended in its wider 



1 ' Fortnightly Review,' July, 1868, p. 73. 



