94 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



supposed " commencement of organic life' 3 as of all 

 subsequent developments of organic life. It is no 

 more needful to suppose an " absolute commencement 

 of organic life," or a "first organism," than it is needful 

 to suppose an absolute commencement of social life 

 and a first social organism.' 



It is of the utmost importance to keep this last 

 consideration clearly in view in discussing the problem 

 of the origin of Life. 



The labours of the chemists who have succeeded in 

 building up organic compounds in their laboratories 

 now come to our aid. They throw even more than 

 a faint glimmer of light upon the possibilities to which 

 we have just been alluding, since, as Mr. Spencer says, 

 c Organic matters are produced in the laboratory by 

 what we may literally call artificial evolution? This 

 opinion he explains in the following passage, which we 

 cannot forbear quoting, notwithstanding its apparent 

 technicality. c Chemists find themselves unable to form,' 

 he says, c these complex combinations directly from 

 their elements; but they succeed in forming them in- 

 directly, by successive modifications of simpler com- 

 binations. In some binary compound, one element of 

 which is present in several equivalents, a change is 

 made by substituting for one of these equivalents an 

 equivalent of some other element; so producing a 

 ternary compound. Then another of the equivalents 

 is replaced, and so on. For instance, beginning with 

 ammonia, NH 3 , a higher form is obtained by replacing 



