Mind and Matter 105 



dew appearing and disappearing on a plate. 

 Apart from a solid surface, dew cannot exist 

 as such ; and to a savage it might seem to 

 spring into and to go out of existence 

 to be an exudation from the solid, and 

 dependent wholly upon it ; but we happen 

 to know more about it : we know that it 

 has a permanent and continuous existence 

 in an imperceptible, intangible, supersensual 

 form, though its visible manifestation in the 

 form of mist or dew is temporary and 

 evanescent. Perhaps it is permissible to 

 trace in that elementary phenomenon some 

 superficial analogy to an incarnation. 



The fact concerning life which lies at the 

 root of Professor Haeckel's doctrine about 

 its origin, is that living beings have un- 

 doubtedly made their appearance on this 

 planet, where at one time they cannot be 

 suspected of having existed. Consequently 

 that whatever life may be, it is something 

 which can begin to interact with the atoms 

 of terrestrial matter, at some period, or state 

 of aggregation, or other condition of elabo- 



