56 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



various modes of self-consciousness ? Whilst such pro- 

 blems, and many others just as difficult, remain for our 

 solution, it could never be supposed that we believed 

 the problems of Life to be solved. We have cleared 

 some of the approaches, but there is still an impene- 

 trable temple of mystery. Fully to appreciate the ex- 

 tent of our ignorance, however, is the best and surest 

 preparation for widening the sphere of our knowledge. 



Glancing now, for a moment, at the conceptions of 

 Life which have been hitherto entertained, let us see 

 how far they are in accordance with modern scientific 

 notions concerning Force. 



Two fundamentally opposite doctrines have been 

 maintained again and again as to the nature of Life, 

 under one or the other of which all the views ever pro- 

 mulgated, on this subject, may be ranged. According 

 to the one school, Life is to be regarded as the prin- 

 ciple or cause of organization and according to the 

 other, Life is the product or effect of organization. 

 Democritus and the other Atomists accounted for the 

 whole phenomenal universe on the supposition that 

 the different kinds of matter are made up of the most 

 variously arranged ultimate particles or atoms. These 

 atoms differing from one another in size, shape, and 

 weight, were nevertheless thought to be indivisible. 

 They were supposed by Democritus to be able to group 

 and arrange themselves and so to form the various 

 material substances which exist by virtue of these 

 inherent tendencies. Nothing but predestination or 



