DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 91 



into any form of material energy, and, vice 

 versa, no form of material energy can he 

 transformed into life. Life and physical 

 force are, as to nature and substance, 

 essentially different principles. 



Although the law just referred to 

 about the permanence and the muta- 

 bility of physical forces thus seems 

 rather to disprove materialism, it was 

 not for this reason chiefly that we have 

 related it. Our purpose is to find a 

 basis in this fact from which the funda 

 mental contrariety between organic and 

 inorganic matter most easily may be 

 explained, and thereafter to enter into 

 this differentiation just as far as is nec- 

 essary to decide the main point as to 

 whether one form of matter can spon- 

 taneously produce another. 



We recollect that the materialists en- 

 deavored to make the difference be- 

 tween organic and inorganic com- 

 pounds as slight as possible. The for- 

 mer consisted of exactly the same ele- 

 ments as the latter and these elements 



