52 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



supernatural beginning or continua- 

 tion; it produces everything; consumes 

 everything; is itself beginning and end, 

 cradle and grave; by its own power 

 nature produces man, by its own power 

 it receives him back again. 



Against these and similar statements 

 there would be no objection, if it could 

 be shown that life really has its source 

 in the material world. But if it can be 

 demonstrated that life never does, nor 

 ever could by any possibility, originate 

 in lifeless matter, then it is evident 

 that we must look for some other 

 source. 



Let it be our object, then, fully to in- 

 vestigate this problem. 



If living beings are produced by ma- 

 terial forces, experience must verify 

 the fact that matter really creates life 

 of itself. In other words, the "to be 

 or not to be" of materialism is identi- 

 cal with the old question of gcneratio 

 aequivoca or spontanea, i. e., whether 

 there exists in nature a spontaneous or 

 parentless generation of living beings. 



