128 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



look for an absolute barrier between the Living and 

 the not-living. We know nothing of an absolute com- 

 mencement of Life ; we may know some of the lowest 

 living things, as mere specks of almost inconceivable 

 smallness, barely perceptible even by our highest micro- 

 scopic powers but these are even then living organic 

 units. We cannot, however, penetrate further who 

 can describe the primordial collocations ? However 

 much we may wish it, we cannot be present at the 

 genesis of Life the veil is still there. The gradual 

 transition from the not-living to the Living is still 

 hidden from our view, and so, perhaps, it may ever 

 remain. 



