THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 179 



evolutionary transition from an inert multimolecule to a re- 

 flexively-operating cell or cytode, becomes inconceivable. Evo- 

 lution might, at the very most, bring about intensifications 

 and combinations of the transitive agencies of the physico- 

 chemical world, but never the volte face, which would be 

 necessary to reverse the centrifugal orientation of forces char- 

 acteristic of the inorganic unit into the centripetal orienta- 

 tion of forces which makes the living unit capable of self- 

 perfective action, self-regulation, and self-renewal. The idea, 

 therefore, of a spontaneous derivation of living units from life- 

 less colloidal multimolecules must be rejected, not merely 

 because it finds no support in the facts of experience, but 

 also because it is excluded by aprioristic considerations. 



§ 8. An Inevitable Corollary 



But, if inorganic matter is impotent to vitalize itself by 

 means of its native physicochemical forces, the inevitable 

 alternative is that the initial production of organisms from 

 inorganic matter was due to the action of some supermaterial 

 agency. Certain scientists, like Henderson of Harvard, while 

 admitting the incredibility of abiogenesis, prefer to avoid open 

 conflict with mechanism and materialism by declaring their 

 neutrality. ''But while biophysicists like Professor Schafer," 

 says Henderson, "follow Spencer in assuming a gradual evolu- 

 tion of the organic from the inorganic, biochemists are 

 more than ever unable to perceive how such a process is pos- 

 sible, and without taking any final stand prefer to let the 

 riddle rest." ("Fitness of the Environment," p. 310, footnote.) 

 Not to take a decisive stand on this question, however, is 

 tantamount to making a compromise with what is illogical 

 and unscientific; for both logic and the inductive trend of 

 biological facts are arrayed against the hypothesis of spon- 

 taneous generation. 



In the first place, it is manifest that organic life is neither 

 self-explanatory nor eternal. Hence it must have had its 

 origin in the action of some external agency. Life as it exists 



