434 COXZfW rJULOSUPHY. [pt. n. 



last living protoplasm was the result of the long-continued 

 process. 



While by following such considerations as these into greate! 

 detail the mode in which protoplasm must have arisen may 

 by and by be partially comprehended, it is at the same time 

 true that the ultimate mystery — the association of vital pro- 

 perties with the enormously-complex chemical compound 

 known as protoplasm — remains unsolved. Why the substance 

 protoplasm should manifest sundry properties which are not 

 lL.riiiifested by any of its constituent substances, we do not 

 know ; and very likely we shall never know. But whether 

 the mystery be for ever insoluble or not, it can in no wise be 

 regarded as a solitary mystery. It is equally mysterious that 

 starch or sugar or alcohol should manifest properties not dis- 

 played by their elements, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, when 

 uncombined. It is equally mysterious that a silvery metal 

 and a suffocating gas should by their union become trans- 

 formed into table-salt. Yet, however mysterious, the fact 

 remains that one result of every chemical synthesis is the 

 manifestation of a new set of properties. The case of living 

 matter or protoplasm is in nowise exceptional. 



In view of these considerations it may be held that the 

 evolution of living things is a not improbable concomitant of 

 the cooling down of any planetary body which contains upon 

 its surface the chemical constituents of living matter. It may 

 perhaps turn out that we can no more reproduce in the 

 laboratory the precise groups of conditions under which living 

 matter was first evolved than we can obtain direct testimony 

 as to the language and civilization of our pre-historic ances- 

 tors. But, just as it is conceded to be possible, by reasoning 

 upon established philological principles, to obtain some trust- 

 worthy results as to the speech and culture of the pre-historic 

 Aryans, so it must be admitted that, by reasoning upon known 

 'facts in physical science, we may get some glimpse of the 

 circumstances which must have attended the origin of living 



