88 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



growth, assimilation, reproduction. If such qualities are really 

 only refined physics and chemistry, as has been stated, then is 

 it much matter for wonder that our predecessors did not find 

 it out, seeing that they had no knowledge of either ? Now, the 

 outcome of what is called life, even in the lowest and so-called 

 insensate forms, is wonderful enough, and is so different from 

 what has been supposed to be possible to mere matter, that it 

 is worth the while to stop and consider why it has seemed so 

 different. 



The philosophers in all the past have had a kind of theory 

 of things to maintain, as to how man came to be on the earth, 

 and especially how evil came to be his portion. Man was 

 created upright and good, but by transgression he fell, and the 

 earth with him was cursed. This theory required the concep- 

 tion of the matter or material of which the earth is made as 

 being utterly inert and dead. The idea was that life, as we 

 know it, was breathed into it, and not until then was there any 

 living thing. Matter was not only lifeless, but it was gross, 

 and all sorts of epithets were applied to it to make wider the 

 distinction between it and a living thing. From a dictum it 

 became a belief ; and, although there was no one who could 

 prove it, or took any steps to prove it, it came to be considered 

 true, and the proposition that matter had no power to do any- 

 thing by itself was thought to be almost axiomatic, and that in 

 spite of the wonderful succession of all kinds of phenomena 

 witnessed every day, — combustion, the falling of an apple, 

 the formation of clouds and dew and hail, the recurrence of 

 day and night, the explosion of powder, of gas, and others just 

 as well known, all showing that matter, so-called inorganic 

 matter, did in some way possess active properties of certain 

 kinds by which it could change phenomena solely through its 

 own powers. It is endowed with energy. Mix sulphur, carbon 

 and saltpetre together — the mixture you call powder ; but you 

 are aware that the compound possesses tremendous energy 

 which you have not imparted to it ; and so does all matter — 

 every atom of it — possess energy of a kind that enables it, 

 under proper conditions, to do the most wonderful things ; and 

 yet this was not suspected for thousands of years, and even 



