THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 65 



of them to originate without the other ; nor can we 

 imagine either of them to exist in nature in isolation 

 from the others. All three are beyond our power to 

 produce, and we have never witnessed their produc 

 tion spontaneously or by artificial means. Our in 

 quiries so far have only brought us into the presence 

 of two inscrutable and miraculous natural trinities. 

 I say miraculous in the true sense of the term, be 

 cause beyond our power and comprehension. 



Protoplasm has been called the * physical basis of/ 

 life ; but this is merely a form of words to conceal 

 ignorance. The substance is no doubt physical in 

 the sense of being material and existing in nature, 

 but it is not physical in the sense of being procurable 

 or persistent under ordinary physical powers or con 

 ditions ; and it is no more the basis of life and organi 

 sation than they are its basis. An egg is mainly \ 

 composed of protoplasm pure in the white, mixed j 

 with some other things in the yolk. It is also an [ 

 example of dead or non-living protoplasm, though 

 produced in the body of a living animal. But if fer 

 tilised it has in it a living and organised germ, also 

 protoplasmic ; and this germ can grow and assimilate 

 the remainder of the protoplasm, and produce out of 

 it all the parts of an animal even so complex as a 

 bird. The animal so produced may have all the 

 parts of a highly complex organic machine, made up 

 of a number of special tissues, all of which wer 

 potentially, though not actually, present in the germ. 



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