THE BREATH OP LIFE 



gets is not a false one, then life belongs to the same 

 category of things as do day and night, rain and sun, 

 rest and motion. Who shall reconcile these contra- 

 dictions? 



Huxley spoke for physical science when he said 

 that he did not know what it was that constituted 

 life — what it was that made the " wonderful dif- 

 ference between the dead particles and the living 

 particles of matter appearing in other respects 

 identical." He thought there might be some bond 

 between physico-chemical phenomena, on the one 

 hand, and vital phenomena, on the other, which 

 philosophers will some day find out. Living matter 

 is characterized by "spontaneity of action," which 

 is entirely absent from inert matter. Huxley can- 

 not or does not think of a vital force distinct from 

 all other forces, as the cause of life phenomena, 

 as so many philosophers have done, from Aristotle 

 down to our day. He finds protoplasm to be the 

 physical basis of life; it is one in both the vegeta- 

 ble and animal worlds; the animal takes it from the 

 vegetable, and the vegetable, by the aid of sun- 

 light, takes or manufactures it from the inorganic 

 elements. But protoplasm is living matter. Be- 

 fore there was any protoplasm, what brought about 

 the stupendous change of the dead into the living? 

 Protoplasm makes more protoplasm, as fire makes 

 more fire, but what kindled the first spark of this 

 living flame? Here we corner the mystery, but it 



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