THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 247 



quoiqu'elle ne maintienne les formes organiques supe- 

 rieures que par la seule propagation, il ne repugne point 

 au bon sens de penser qu'aujourd'hui encore elle a la 

 puissance de produire les formes inferieures avec des 

 elements heterogenes, comme elle a cree originaire- 

 ment tout ce qui possede Porganisation.' But, although 

 this passage shows that Burdach believed in the 

 possibility of the origin of living things from what 

 are called not-living materials, nevertheless he did 

 not believe that in such a case there would be a 

 creation of a something altogether new, which we term 

 c Life.' This divergence arises from the nature of his 

 theoretical views. The whole universe is to him the 

 organism of organisms, and endowed with Life. Else- 

 where l he says : c Mais si 1'univers est 1'organisme 

 absolu, chacune de ses parties doit etre un tout or- 



ganique II y a plus encore : la force du 



tout doit etre inherente a chaque chose particuliere, 

 et effectivement nous rencontrons des traces de vie dans 

 toute existence yuelconque V Similar considerations have 

 to be taken into account before we can thoroughly 

 comprehend the doctrines of Pouchet, and those of 

 Buffon, Needham, and others who are professed 



1 ' Traite de Physiol.' t. iv. p. 149. 



2 The relation of Force to Life seems to have been clearly seen by 

 Burdach, whose doctrine approximates to that of Schelling. We differ 

 only in restricting the attribute ' living ' to its conventional use ; though 

 we fully recognize that all things whether living or not-living are 

 fundamentally related from the point of view of the origin of their 

 4 properties,' or ' qualities.' 



