50 THE UNIVERSE. 



tionists take care not to give these facts, of which an ample 

 supply may be found in the works of naturalists, for fear of 

 compromising their system. 



The alleged facts regarding the resurrection of the Ro- 

 tifera are of the same cast. If they revive after a long 

 starvation, it is because they were no more dead than the 

 molluscs in question. Encased, like them, in their envelope, 

 and perhaps even more effectually, their life in this con- 

 tracted state is only supported by their organs still retain- 

 ing sufficient fluid to prevent existence from being extin- 

 guished. When they are really dry and dead, not even a 

 semblance of resurrection is possible. To resuscitate a 

 mummy is a threefold absurdity, physical, physiological, 

 and metaphysical. 



Physical, because those who have seen a mummy could 

 never imagine that tissues so ruined by desiccation can 

 recover their appearance and properties under the influence 

 of moisture. 



Physiological, because organs so changed could not take 

 on their functions again. 



And finally metaphysical, because if a small quantity of 

 water could restore to a mummy all the intangible springs 

 of life, it would be the coping-stone of the most incompre- 

 hensible materialism. The phoenix only lives as a myth, 

 and the dead no longer issue from their tombs at the voice 

 of Elijah. 



Very naturally, those physiologists who, in imitation of 

 Dujardin, have likened microscopic animalcules to morsels 

 of living gelatine, hailed the doctrine of palingenesis, or re- 

 suscitation from death. 



