THE BELFAST ADDRESS. 191 



finely granular character.' Can we pause here? We 

 break a magnet, and find two poles in each of its frag- 

 ments. We continue the process of breaking; 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 some- 

 thing similar in the case of life? Is there not a temp- 

 tation to close to some extent with Lucretius, when 

 he affirms that ' Nature is seen to do all things spon- 

 taneously 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 authoritatively supplements 

 the vision of the eye. By a necessity engendered and 

 justified by science I cross the boundary of the experi- 

 mental evidence,* and discern in that Matter which we, 

 in our ignorance of its latent powers, and notwith- 

 standing our professed reverence for its Creator, have 

 hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and 

 potency of all terrestrial Life. 



If you ask me whether there exists the least evi- 

 dence to prove that any form of life can be developed 

 out of matter, without demonstrable antecedent life, 

 my reply is that evidence considered perfectly con- 

 clusive by many has been adduced; and that were 

 some of us who have pondered this question to follow 

 a very common example, and accept testimony because 

 it falls in with our belief, we also should eagerly close 

 with the evidence referred to. But there is in the true 

 * This mode of procedure was not invented in Belfast 



