18 THE CREED OF SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



grand chain of evolutionary process from the nebular 

 haze to the sublimed spirit of man, as manifested in 

 Plato, Raphael, Newton, and Shakespeare, will soon be 

 supplied, and the last enigma of existence at length be 

 solved. 



Indeed, Professor Haeckel will have it that the pro- 

 blem is as good as solved at present, spite of the want 

 of confirmation by recent scientific experiment, of the 

 asserted fact of spontaneous generation. According to 

 this eminent biologist, the first step from non-living to 

 living matter was made spontaneously by Nature mil- 

 lions of centuries ago at the bottom of the sea, " where 

 the primitive life organisms were formed like saline 

 crystals in water." * Moreover, this process of spon- 

 taneous generation, though now less necessary, still goes 

 on at intervals, perhaps even constantly, had we only 

 sufficiently keen and commanding range of vision to see 

 it. Some species of the inionera are probably produced 

 in this way. But at least it is certain that, in the past, 

 the fact of spontaneous production of life must have 

 occurred. There is no other conceivable or possible 

 hypothesis. Only grant sufficient time and it is argued, 

 with a whole infinite past to draw upon, there need be 

 no stint in this respect only grant the necessary time 

 to exhaust possible errors, wrong tentatives, erroneous 

 combinations of chemical atoms, and at last the happy 

 fortuitous meeting and permanent alliance of the proper 

 atoms must take place; the living molecule containing 

 the due though complicated combination of chemical 

 atoms will at length be born ; from which, under favour 

 of natural selection, to protoplasm the elementary 

 building material of all life, and in particular of the 



* Address of Professor Haeckel (see Times, August 30, 1878 ; also 

 History of Creation). 



