486 FRA QMENTS F SCIENCE. 
imperfect definitions. " the gentle mother of all "became 
the object of her children's dread. Let us reverently, but 
honestly, look the question in the face. Divorced from 
matter, where is life? Whatever our faith may say, our 
knowledge shows them to be indissolubly joined. Every 
meal we eat, and every cup we drink, illustrates the 
mysterious control of Mind by Matter. 
On tracing the line of life backward, we see it approach- 
ing more and more to what we call the purely physical 
condition. We come at length to those organisms which I 
have compared to drops of oil suspended in a mixture of 
alcohol and water. We reach the protogenes of Haeckel, 
in which we have " a type distinguishable from a fragment 
of albumen only by its finely granular character." Can we 
pause here? We break a magnet, and find two poles in 
each of its fragments. We continue the process of break- 
ing; but, however small the parts, each carries with it, 
though enfeebled, the polarity of the whole. And when 
we can break no longer, we prolong the intellectual vision 
to the polar molecules. Are we not urged to do something 
similar in the case of life? Is there not a temptation to 
close to some extent with Lucretius, when he affirms that 
" Nature is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself 
without the meddling of the gods?" or with Bruno, when 
he declares that Matter is not " that mere empty capacity, 
which philosophers have pictured her to be, but the 
universal mother who brings forth all things as the fruit 
of her own womb?" Believing, as I do, in the continuity 
of nature, I cannot stop abruptly where our microscopes 
cease to be of use. Here the vision of the mind author- 
itatively supplements the vision of the eye. By a necessity 
engendered and justified by science I cross the boundary 
of the experimental evidence,* and discern in that Matter 
which we, in our ignorance of its latent powers, and not- 
withstanding our professed reverence for its Creator, have 
hitnerto covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency 
of all terrestrial Life. 
If you ask me whether there exists the least evidence to 
prove that any form of life can be developed out of 
matter, without demonstrable antecedent life, my reply is 
that evidence considered perfectly conclusive by many has 
* This mode of procedure was not invented in Belfast. 
