ON THE VITALISTIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



453 



matter is not being continually formed out of not-living 

 matter, while it is an undeniable fact that livinir 

 matter is continually and everywhere passing out of 

 existence, the preservation of life is dependent upon 

 an enormous self-overproduction which, combined with 

 the process of natural selection, secures its permanence 

 and the development of the highest forms of which it is 

 capable. The continuity — i.e., the interdependence — of "^i- 

 all living forms in time and space guarantees the non-ex- ,^'"."'^y ^^ 



c r o living forms. 



tinction of this phenomenon, which, for all that we know, 

 is of a unique character. The modern scientific and popular 

 view of life is that it is a unique phenomenon, that it is 

 a ubiquitous phenomenon, at least within the area of 

 what we call " our " world, and that it is a continuous 

 phenomenon. The unique character or singularity of 

 life has been directly demonstrated by the sameness of 

 the ultimate units of all living matter, the cells, indirectly 

 by the refutation of the older theory of spontaneous 

 generation ; and has been enormously strengthened by the 

 doctrine of descent, the phenomena of overcrowding, and 

 the possibility of natural selection. The ubiquity of life — 

 within certain limits — has been revealed directly by the 

 microscope, and indirectly by the modern theories of 

 disease, and of many forms of growth.^ The continuity of 



1 There is a striking passage in 

 Nansen's 'Farthest North,' vol. i. 

 p. 445, showing the ul)i(iuity of 

 organic germs : " When the sun's 

 rays had gained power on the sur- 

 face of the ice, and melted the 

 snow, so that pools were formed, 

 there were soon to be seen at the 

 bottom of these pools small yellow- 

 ish brown spots, so small that at 

 first one hardly noticed them. J )ay 



by day they increased in size, and 

 absorbing, like all dark substances, 

 the heat of the sun's riiys, they 

 gradual! J' melted the underlying 

 ice and formed round cavities often 

 several inches deep. These brown 

 spots were . . . algto and diatoms. 

 . . . I actually found bacteria,^ 

 even these regions are not free 

 from them." 



