DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 59 



Before Pasteur's simple and clear evi- 

 dence, opposition was silenced even so 

 far that the question has almost en- 

 tirely ceased to occupy our attention. 

 Omne vivitm ex vivo appears now to be 

 an unchallenged truth. Life implies 

 life. 



But although science thus rejected 

 generatio spontanea, the materialists 

 nevertheless occupy a very strong po- 

 sition on the selfsame foundation as 

 formerly, and continue the defense ap- 

 parently not without some success. 



In spite of Btichner's real, or per- 

 haps partly pretended, confidence, he 

 seems to have had a presentiment of 

 how weak the support of generatio spon- 

 tanea was, and we find him therefore 

 suddenly reasoning as if its cause were 

 already lost. Thus he makes the en- 

 tirely sound remark that even if at the 

 present time all animals and plants 

 must have parents, yet nothing what- 

 ever is thereby demonstrated in regard 

 to the very first appearance of life in 

 the universe. "If all organic beings 



