25G BIOGENESIS AND AlJlOGENESIS vm 



place in the post, or ever will take place m 

 the future. With organic chemistry, molecular 

 physics, and physiology yet in their infancy, and 

 every day making prodigious strides, I think it 

 would be the height of presumption for any man 

 to say that the conditions under which matt, r 

 assumes the properties we call &quot;vital&quot; may not. 

 some day, be artificially brought together. All 1 

 feel justified in affirming is, that I see no reason 

 for believing that the feat has been perform. -.1 

 yet. 



And looking back through the prodigious vista 

 of the past, I find no record of the commencement 

 of life, and therefore I am devoid of an\ means &quot;t 

 forming a definite conclusion as to the conditions 

 of its appearance. Belief, in the scientific 

 of the word, is a serious matter, and needs sh.in- 

 foundations. To say, therefore, in the admitted 

 absence of evidence, that I have any belief a&amp;gt;- t&amp;gt; 

 the mode in which the existing forms of life I 

 originated, would be using words in a wroiu ft DM 

 But expectation is ]&amp;gt;ermissible where heli-f is 

 not; and if it were given me to look beyond tin- 

 abyss of geologically recorded time to the still 

 more remote period when the earth wa- 

 through phv-ical and eh&amp;lt;-mi&amp;lt;-al conditions, which 

 it can no more see a-.nn than a man can recall 

 his infancy 1 should expect to be a witness of the 

 evolution &amp;lt;&amp;gt;f living protoplasm from not living 

 matter. I should e\|.e&amp;lt; t to sec it appear under 



