LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 87 



ment; and the argument therefore is as loose in proof as 

 all others which bear upon this question. 



We pass here by a short step to another topic, one of the 

 most interesting, but most obscure, in natural history, that 

 of the reproduction of life. Modern science, active as we 

 have seen in its interrogation of all nature, has eagerly ex- 

 plored this subject, and obtained many new facts and con- 

 clusions ; but none which give a key to the ultimate mystery 

 of life propagating similar life. The steps made are all 

 intermediate ; in no respect are they final or complete. We 

 may refer, for example, to the recent discovery (due to the 

 microscope) of the cell structure, as the first distinct develope- 

 ment of individual life, and the rudiment of future growth 

 both in the animal and vegetable world. In the zeal with 

 which physiologists have adopted and pursued this dis- 

 covery, there has been somewhat too high an estimate of its 

 real value. The fact, indeed, is curious and unexpected; 

 but it carries us onwards by a single step only. Cells them- 

 selves, with whatever nuclei they may contain, must be 

 derived from some more primitive germ or aggregation of 

 matter ; and when we read of cell force and cell growth, we 

 have reason to ask what these terms really convey to us. 

 It is even easier to conceive of growth from minute vascular 

 structure, than from cellular aggregation : but both concep- 

 tions leave untouched the great problem of generation ; the 

 assumption of infinitely different but perfectly definite 

 forms, from rudiments thus simple and seemingly similar. 

 We feel that there is something beyond which no hypo- 

 thesis, however bold, can cope with ; that we are yet far 

 from reaching to that mysterious principle or power, by which 

 the life of individuals and species is elaborated and main- 

 tained, generation after generation, under every grade of 

 likeness or diversity, each equally inexplicable ! 



Modern research into these phenomena has not been 



