THE BREATH OF LIFE 



After we have marveled over all these hidden 

 things, and been impressed by the world within 

 world of the material universe, do we get any nearer 

 to the mystery of life? Can we see where the tre- 

 mendous change from the non-living to the living 

 takes place? Can we evoke life from the omnipotent 

 ether, or see it arise in the whirling stream of atoms 

 and electrons? Molecular science opens up to us a 

 world where the infinitely little matches the infi- 

 nitely great, where matter is dematerialized and an- 

 swers to many of the conceptions of spirit; but does 

 it bring us any nearer the origin of life? Is radio- 

 active matter any nearer living matter than is the 

 clod under foot? Are the darting electrons any 

 more vital than the shooting-stars? Can a flash of 

 radium emanations on a zinc-sulphide plate kindle 

 the precious spark? It is probably just as possible 

 to evoke vitality out of the clash of billiard-balls as 

 out of the clash of atoms and electrons. This allu- 

 sion to billiard-balls recalls to my mind a striking 

 passage from TyndalFs famous Belfast Address 

 which he puts in the mouth of Bishop Butler in his 

 imaginary argument with Lucretius, and which 

 shows how thoroughly Tyndall appreciated the 

 difficulties of his own position in advocating the 

 theory of the physico-chemical origin of life. 



The atomic and electronic theory of matter ad- 



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