lo THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



*' On grounds of analogy, therefore," he adds, " we should 

 deem it antecedently improbable that the process of 

 evolution, elsewhere so uniform and ubiquitous, should 

 have been interrupted at its terminal phase." 



But this continuity we altogether deny as regards 

 the domain of irrational nature, and whatever force his 

 argument has, tells (if we are right) directly against his 

 contention, instead of in favour of it. That there is an 

 absolute break between the living world and the world 

 devoid of life, is what scientific men are now agreed 

 about — thanks to the persevering labours of M. Pasteur. 

 Those who affirm that though life does not arise from 

 inorganic matter now, nevertheless it did so " a long time 

 ago," affirm what is at the least contrary to all the 

 evidence we possess, and they can bring forward nothing 

 more in favour of it than the undoubted fact that it is a 

 supposition which is necessary for the validity of their 

 own speculative views.* There is, then, one plain evidence 

 that there has been an interruption of continuity, if not 

 within the range of organic life, yet at its commence- 

 ment and origin. But we go further than this, and affirm, 

 without a moment's hesitation, that there has, and must 

 necessarily have been, discontinuity within the region of 

 organic life also. We refer to the discontinuity between 

 organisms which are capable of sensation and those 

 which do not possess the power of feeling.t That all the 



* Thus, e.^., Dr. A. Weismann says, " I admit that spon- 

 taneous generation, in spite of all vain efforts to demonstrate it, 

 remains for me a logical necessity." See his "Essays upon 

 Heredity, etc." : Oxford, 1889. 



t Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his recent work, "Darwinism," p. 475, 

 does not hesitate also to affirm this ; declaring it to be altogether 



