PROFESSOR TYNDALUS ADDRESS. 681 



hypothesis preferable ; but the definitions of matter given in our text- 

 books were intended to cover its purely physical and mechanical 

 properties. And, taught as we have been to regard these definitions 

 as complete, we naturally and rightly reject the monstrous notion that 

 out of such matter any form of life could possibly arise. But are the 

 definitions complete ? Every thing depends on the answer to be given 

 to this question. Trace the line of life backward, and see it approach- 

 ing more and more to what we call the purely physical condition. 

 We reach at length those organisms which I have compared to drops 

 of oil suspended in a mixture of alcohol-and-water. \Ye reach the 

 protogenes of Haeckel, in which we have " a type distinguishable from 

 a fragment of albumen only by its finely-granular character." Can 

 we pause here? We break a magnet, and find two poles in each of 

 its fragments. We continue the process of breaking, but, however 

 small the parts, each carries with it, though enfeebled, the polarity of 

 the whole. And, when we can break no longer, we prolong the intel- 

 lectual vision to the polar molecules. Are we not urged to do some- 

 thing similar in the case of life ? Is there not a temptation to close 

 to some extent with Lucretius, when he aflirms that " Xature is seen 

 to do all things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of the 

 gods ? " or with Bruno, when he declares that Matter is not " that 

 mere empty capacity which philosophers have pictured her to be, but 

 the universal mother who brings forth all things as the fruit of her 

 own womb ? " The questions here raised are inevitable. They are 

 approaching us with accelerated speed, and it is not a matter of indif- 

 ference whether they are introduced with reverence or irreverence. 

 Abandoning all disguise, the confession that I feel bound to make be- 

 fore you is that I prolong the vision backward across the boundary of 

 the experimental evidence, and discern in that matter, which we in 

 our ignorance, and notwithstanding our professed reverence for its 

 Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and 

 potency of every form and quality of life. 



The "materialism" here enunciated may be difierent from what 

 you suppose, and I therefore crave your gracious patience to the end. 

 " The question of an external world," says Mr. J. S. Mill, " is the 

 great battle-ground of metaphysics." ^ Mr. Mill himself reduces ex- 

 ternal phenomena to " possibilities of sensation." Kant, as we have 

 seen, made time and space " forms " of our own intuitions. Fichte, 

 having first by the inexorable logic of his understanding proved him- 

 self to be a mere link in that chain of eternal causation which holds 

 so rigidly in Nature, violently broke the chain by making Nature, 

 and all that it inherits, an apparition of his own mind.^ And it is by 

 no means easy to combat such notions. For, when I say I see you,* 

 and that I have not the least doubt about it, the reply is, that what I 

 am really conscious of is an affection of my own retina. And if I urge 



1 '* Examination of Hamilton," p. 154. ^ " Bestimmung de? Menschen." 



