THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 57 



We are thus forced to ask what could have been the 

 origin of the first protoplasm from which the rest 

 has arisen. After all the discussion, however, we 

 must finally admit that we do not know when life 

 first arose or how, nor do we understand the causes 

 which brought it into existence. Many secondary 

 problems have been and are being solved, but the 

 real question remains as yet untouched, except by 

 hypothesis and speculation. Vital processes may 

 all be shown to be chemical and physical processes, 

 but this will never explain why they are carried on 

 automatically in protoplasm and here alone ; and 

 granting, if we are inclined to do so, that it is one of 

 the physical properties of protoplasm to direct this 

 play of force, there still remains the fact that to-day 

 protoplasm can only come from other protoplasm. 

 Whence came the first protoplasm ? To this ques- 

 tion science offers in answer, first : the law of con- 

 tinuity, in terms of which the original spontaneous 

 generation of life from the non-living is a necessity ; 

 and, second, various speculations, which, though ac- 

 knowledged to be entirely unproved, are regarded 

 as showing that in the boundless possibilities of the 

 past, spontaneous generation might well have taken 

 place, provided always it be granted that life is 

 simply the result of complex chemical and molecular 

 composition. 



From all of this discussion and speculation we can 

 isolate two facts: I. Life arose in the ocean. 2. The 

 first form of life was the simplest possible condition 

 of living matter, certainly simpler than any living 

 organisms with which we are acquainted to-day, and 



