THE BELFAST ADDEESS. 191 



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 authoritatively supplements 

 the vision of the eye. By a necessity engendered and 

 justified by science I cross the boundary of the experi- 

 mental evidence, 1 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 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 been adduced ; and that were some of us who have 

 pondered this question to follow a very common ex- 

 ample, 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 man of science a 

 desire stronger than the wish to have his beliefs up- 

 held ; namely, the desire to have them true. And this 

 stronger wish causes him to reject the most plausible 

 support, if he has reason to suspect that it is vitiated 

 by error. Those to whom I refer as having studied 

 this question, believing the evidence offered in favour 

 of spontaneous generation ' to be thus vitiated, cannot 

 accept it. They know full well that the chemist now 

 prepares from inorganic matter a vast array of sub- 

 stances, which were some time ago regarded as the sole 

 1 This mode of procedure was not invented in Belfast. 





