BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 139 



herent in non-living matter and may even be 

 continually manifested, though we are unable 

 to recognise the fact. " If," says Fr. Sharpe,* 

 " against all probability, life could be shown 

 to be spontaneously generated from matter, 

 this would merely mean that the sentient or 

 vegetative soul [whicjh one in^y also speak of 

 as the vital principle or under any other term 

 which connotes the existence of an extra- 

 physical agency in living matter] is a resultant 

 from certain chemical combinations, and not, 

 as has been supposed, the direct work of the 

 Creator. But there is no more inherent im- 

 possibility in holding that animal life is brought 

 into being by a certain combination of chemical 

 substances than in the converse belief, which 

 is incontestable, that it is brought to an end 

 by the dissolution, natural or artificial, of that 

 combination. If we can destroy an animal's 

 oul, as we certainly can, there is no a priori 

 reason why we should not be able to make 



one." 



Whilst, however, we allow all this, we must 

 admit, with all who have studied the subject, 

 that no approach has been made to any syn- 

 thesis at all approaching that which would con- 

 stitute living matter, and that those syntheses 

 of organic compounds which have been arrived 



* The Principles of Christianity, 1906, p. 56. 



