IS LIFE UNIVERSAL? 145 



the child's claim to shelter in the bosom which sus- 

 tains them all. Bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh, 

 breath of her breath. Each thrilling wave of life flows 

 warm and fresh, from fountains which the sunbeams 

 feed, which roll through every fibre of the solid 

 globe, and spring up glowing from the central fires. 



We do not require, for organic life, to assume any 

 new or special power ; the common and all-pervad- 

 ing powers of nature are enough. But now a 

 question arises : How can the living be derived 

 from that which is not living ? How can any limit- 

 ing, or directing, or adapting, make life to be where 

 life was not ? This is a legitimate question. Men 

 refuse to rest satified with any supposition which 

 seems to refer life to an unliving source, or to reduce 

 it to the play of mere mechanic forces. Often have 

 the instincts of our nature repudiated the resolution 

 of vital phenomena into the shifting balance of 

 attractions, the lifeless affinities whose sweep is 

 bounded by the chemist's crucible. And the feeling 

 has a just foundation; organic life cannot spring 

 merely from dead matter. But if the demand for a 

 living source of life is just, it is to be observed that 



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