IX 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 1 



As we look round us, in street or country or 

 where you please, we see objects which may be 

 divided into two great classes. To the first belong 

 houses, rocks, and stones, whose is, as Wordsworth 

 has it, 



"The silence and the calm 

 Of mute insensate things." 



To the second belong such objects as men and 

 sparrows, which have an apparent spontaneity 

 and power of self - movement that sharply dis- 

 tinguish them from their inanimate surroundings. 

 On much further consideration we find that it is 

 necessary to include in the same class as men and 

 birds a number of objects, mute and to all appear- 

 ance insensate, which have no obvious power of 

 self - movement, but are almost as stationary as 

 the houses or the stones. These are trees, grass, 

 shrubs, every form of vegetable life. They are 

 not to be regarded as half-alive, or less endowed 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Pall Mall Magazine for 

 June, 1905. 



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