LiyXEA>'' SOCIETY OF LOXDON. 3 1 



together with the very limited extent of the exploration of 

 this but recently thrown open field have so far precluded 

 success/^ (p. 11.) 



V. Tlie germinal orir/in of cJiaracters, and the persistence of germ- 

 life. 



" But our parallel of comparison of Man with the Simians 

 is efi"ectuallj arrested by a threefold, irremoveable, barrier : 

 the possession of progressive, deductive and inventive Reason; 

 the acquirement of extensible and transmissible Speech ; and 

 the innate knowledge of the formation and use of Tools ; 

 attributes resident solely in the spermatozoa and ovum of the 

 human species, and absolutely inseparable therefrom. So I 

 4im spared the unpleasantness of announcing anything so 

 distasteful, to you, as that the monkey was parent or progeny 

 of Man ; thus, this Scylla and Oharybdis being happily 

 steered past, I merely find it necessary to reaffirm my fixed 

 belief in the gradual origination of both from a general 

 parent, each distinct from birth and each preserving that 

 distinctiveness unto the present epoch, modified somewhat, it 

 is true, in the instance of the human individual owing to his 

 germ-endowment with the rudiments of primarily cultivatible 

 and incalculably higher functions." (pp. 10-11.) 



" Spiritualism plays no part in the great drama of this our 

 life. Indeed, the sole phenomenon approaching to such is 

 the departure of the life-germ from a perishing frame but to 

 begin anew in another or an allied form. For nothing is lost 

 in the vast economy of Xature : all things suffer but a 

 transient change of form: thus the life germ resident in Man 

 transmitted to his descendants, goes on existing indefinitely 

 throughout all Time's infinitude of years ; just as his 

 Thoughts, those Genii children of his prolific brain, continue 

 to live on ages and ages after that transitory organ has 

 mouldered away into the dust of the long ago ; and thus, 

 and only thus, is Man immortal : in the transmission of his 

 germ life and in the eternal perpetuation of his Orio-inal 

 ■Thought." (p. 14.) 



Lectuee II. 



THE DANGEES OF THE UXSEEN. 



vi. TJie germ-theory of disease. 



" From observation, thought and deduction, I have con- 

 cluded that earth, air and water are replete with multi- 

 tudinous, infinitesimal, ever active creatures, probably many 



