The Evolution of the Sciences 



an absurdity the search for spontaneous genera- 

 tion or to class it with the squaring of the 

 circle. We know that it is not sufficient, as 

 Van Helmont imagined, to lock up a dirty shirt 

 with some grains of wheat for a mouse to be born 

 at the end of twenty-one days ; we do not deny 

 any of Pasteur's admirable discoveries, but we 

 have certainly the right to say with Sir Oliver 

 Lodge, " There would be no cause for astonish- 

 ment if we succeeded sooner or later in producing 

 in the laboratory a phenomenon which we could 

 not avoid considering as spontaneous genera- 

 tion. " The world is far from its end, and science 

 is only beginning. 



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