128 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



spontaneous generation is going on all around 

 us, and there is nothing to prove that it is not, 

 it is not a miracle in any proper sense of the 

 word, but a part of the operations of nature. 

 If it is not going on around us, but life was 

 once infused into inorganic nature and has gone 

 on propagating itself ever since then, again, 

 it was not a miracle in any proper sense of the 

 word but a fore-ordained part of the general 

 scheme of life progress. It is certainly true 

 that if we deny spontaneous, generation we mujst 

 since there is no other alternative affirm the 

 action of a Creator, and that seems to be the 

 reason for the ardent affection shown to the 

 first-named view by some of its supporters. 

 But the reverse is by no means true as some 

 would seem to imagine, for the acceptance of 

 spontaneous generation in no way does away 

 with the necessity for a Creator, as will shortly 

 be shown. 



Some, like Sir E. Schaefer in his Presidential 

 Address to the British Association in 1912, 

 would have us believe that the promise of life 

 is to be found in those very interesting and 

 complicated bodies the colloids (i.e, glue-like 

 substances), which are undoubtedly the under- 

 lying fabric of many of the processes of life. 

 But the words were hardly out of his mouth 

 when the chemists arose in a body to declare 



