68 THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



be able to conceive the structure and mode of 

 action of the molecular machinery of the exist- 

 ence of which they are perfectly certain, 

 although it has not yet been rendered evident 

 even to their sense. Nay, I will admit further, 

 that a sufficient intelligence might be able to 

 predict, from -the properties of its component 

 parts, the character which the offspring of any 

 given piece of " molecular machinery " will 

 assume after it has continued to grow and mul- 

 tiply, say for a thousand years. But do such 

 suggestions enable us to unravel the mystery of 

 the life of even the simplest thing now alive, 

 or to determine in what particulars a living 

 particle differs from the same particle dead ; or 

 why a portion of a mass of living matter moves 

 upwards as well as downwards, or in what 

 manner it takes up non-living matter, and com- 

 municates to this its own properties, and divides 

 into separate portions, every one of which pos- 

 sesses equal powers ? It may be answered, 

 " These phenomena are due to the properties of 

 the molecular machinery which has long been 

 known to exist in the "imaginations of highly 

 gifted persons ; and, although as yet no one 

 has succeeded in actually producing such 



