114 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [vn. 



And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of 

 the matter of life ? 



Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused 

 throughout the universe in molecules, which are indestructible 

 and unchangeable in themselves ; but, in endless transmigration, 

 unite in innumerable permutations, into the diversified forms of 

 life we know ? Or, is the matter of life composed of ordinary 

 matter, differing from it only in the manner in which its atoms 

 are aggregated ? Is it built up of ordinary matter, and again 

 resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done ? 



Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these 

 alternatives. Physiology writes over the portals of life 



&quot; Debemur morti nos nostraque,&quot; 



with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to 

 that melancholy line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, 

 whether fungus or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not 

 only ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless 

 constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the paradox 

 may sound, could not live unless it died. 



In the wonderful story of the &quot; Peau de Chagrin,&quot; the hero 

 becomes possessed of a magical wild ass skin, which yields him 

 the means of gratifying all his wishes. But its surface repre 

 sents the duration of the proprietor s life ; and for every satisfied 

 desire the skin shrinks in proportion to the intensity of 

 fruition, until at length life and the last handbreadth of the 

 j)eau de chagrin disappear with the gratification of a last wish. 



Balzac s studies had led him over a wide range of thought and 

 speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in 

 this strange story may have been intentional. At any rate, the 

 matter of life is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every vital 

 act it is somewhat the smaller. All work implies waste, and 

 the work of life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of 

 protoplasm. 



Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss ; 

 and, in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light 



