42 Life and Matter [chap. m. 



plasm. He says that he formulated this 

 view thirty-three years ago, and that no better 

 monistic theory has arisen to replace it, 

 while to reject some form of spontaneous 

 generation is to admit a miracle : 



" The hypothesis of spontaneous generation, and 

 the allied carbon-theory (viz., that ' carbon. . . . 

 may be considered the chemical basis of life,' p. 

 2) are of great importance in deciding the long- 

 standing conflict between the tekological (dualistic) 

 and the mechanical (monistic) interpretation of 

 phenomena" (p. 91). 



But it can hardly be maintained that a 

 " hypothesis " is able to " decide " any 

 dispute. (See, however, Chapter VI.) 



An unscientific reader could hardly 

 imagine that the apparently detailed account 

 given in the next sentence of the automatic 

 origin of life, as it may have arisen on other 

 planes, and as it must have arisen on this, is 

 of the nature of hypothesis : 



" First simple monera are formed by spontaneous 

 generation, and from these arise unicellular 

 protists. . . . From these unicellular protists 

 arise, in the further course of evolution, first 



