THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 79 



rather, we should wish to convey the idea, that a par- 

 ticular aggregation of matter had been brought about, 

 of such a kind as to enable it to manifest the properties 

 of a Living Thing, properties which are expressed in 

 their generality by the word c Life.' Philosophically 

 speaking, therefore, there can be no abrupt line of 

 demarcation between the living and the not-living. 

 Living things are peculiar aggregates of ordinary 

 matter and of ordinary force which in their separate 

 states do not possess the aggregate of qualities known 

 as c Life/ The transition must be most gradual, there- 

 fore, between some of the ordinary not-living states 

 of these and the formation of those particular colloca- 

 tions which constitute them living things. 'Construed 

 in terms of evolution,' as Mr. Spencer says 1 , c every 

 kind of being is conceived as a product of modifica- 

 tions wrought by insensible gradations on a pre- 

 existing kind of being:' to which we will only add, 

 that the physical forces expending themselves in bring- 

 ing about any particular collocation manifest them- 

 selves anew in the properties which this displays. 

 Qmnia mutantur : nthil mterit. As Dumas 2 has said, 

 there is an c eternal round in which death is quickened 

 and Life appears, but in which matter merely changes 

 its place and form.' 



1 Appendix to ' Principles of Biology.' 



2 'Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic Nature,' 1844 

 (Translation), p 48. 



