ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 285 



analogousHo the electro-galvanic fluid, how are we to account 

 for its varied results in the different classes of organisms, so 

 as to give such extremely different powers of vital chemistry 

 (if I may be permitted the use of the expression), that it 

 shall endow one race of organisms with the faculty of secret- 

 ing a combination of matter sought for in vain in every other 

 race of organic beings, or in any combination of unorganized 

 matter found upon the earth, and past the art of man so to 

 combine matter to produce the same results, even although 

 he knows all its constituents and the proportion in which 

 they are combined, — that two insects shall be hatched, feed, 

 and come to maturity upon the same plant, yet each of them 

 shall so secrete matter, that it shall be utterly in vain to find 

 the least trace of the peculiar product of the one in the other, 

 although they have been subject to the influence of the same 

 matter externally and internally. There surely must be a 

 something beyond the mere effect of matter operated upon 

 by any single power attached to it ; it is rather difficult to 

 comprehend the idea of one and the same purely dynamic 

 (consequently unintelligent) power, creating by its operations 

 alone upwards of a million different species of organisms, 

 endowing each with different powers from all the rest, giving 

 each the everduring faculty of reproduction of its kind, so 

 that its descendants may never deviate from its type. 



If the powers of life are inherent in matter, and invested 

 in or with it by the Almighty, how are we to account for the 

 extinction of races of organic beings } If we allow that man 

 can carry on a war of extermination against a species of 

 beings, what prevents spontaneous generation in such cases ? 

 Are we to allow that one organism possesses the power of 

 utterly eradicating another organism, notwithstanding the 

 inherent powers of matter by which they are both produced ; 

 — that man is more mighty than his Maker ; — that spon- 

 taneous generation can create a power more powerful than 

 itself? What absurdities we are liable to be led into when 

 we overstep the plain boundaries of observed truth ! If 

 we are so far distant from the great creative period of the 

 present world, as to expect no new forms of organisms, what 

 prevents it from reproducing the present or extinct forms ? 

 Are we to conclude that it lies dormant as to one race of 

 organisms, and in full operation as regards another ; or that 

 it is so far exhausted, that it is not able to produce the 

 higher organisms ? If so, it must, in time, become utterly 

 exhausted and extinct, unless, by the direct interference of 

 the Creator, it is renovated or renewed ; if it is not weak- 

 ened, it must necessarily produce the very same forms of 

 beings that it already has produced miless the combina- 



