

THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 69 



kind of entity or self-existent principle. But whilst 

 we say that Life is a result of organization, we do 

 not necessarily mean of an organization which is 

 capable of being discovered by means of our micro- 

 scopes rather, of a molecular organization, in the 

 sense of a peculiarly complex and unstable colloca- 

 tion of the component atoms of the matter displaying 

 Life, which may exist to perfection after its own 

 fashion, even in what appears to be the perfectly 

 structureless jelly-mass constituting one of the Prot- 

 amabz of Professor Haeckel. And it is important to 

 keep this difference in view to remember that the 

 only organization necessary for the display of Life is 

 a molecular organization which, in the common accep- 

 tation of the term, has often been regarded as no or- 

 ganization at all. Mr. Lewes says, c Although the 

 question whether Life precedes Organization has been 

 often asked, it is a question mal pose'e. If by organiza- 

 tion we are to understand not simply organic substance, 

 but a more or less complex arrangement of that sub- 

 stance into separate organs, the question is tantamount 

 to asking whether the simplest animals and plants have 

 life ? And to ask the question whether Life precedes 

 organic substance, is tantamount to asking whether the 

 convex surface of a curve precedes the concave, or 

 whether the motions of a body precede the body V If 

 the word 'organization 5 is comprehended in its wider 



1 'Fortnightly Review,' July, 1868, p. 73. 



