1 62 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



to be shaken, and was held in a more qualified form. 

 Buffon, for instance, held that there were certain 

 primitive and incorruptible particles common to 

 animals and to vegetables which could mould 

 themselves into various organic forms. When 

 death occurred these particles became free, and, 

 "ever active, they worked the putrefied matter, 

 appropriating to themselves some raw particles, and 

 forming, by their reunion, a multitude of little 

 organised bodies, of which some, like earthworms 

 and fungi, seem to be fair-sized animals or 

 vegetables, but of which others, in almost infinite 

 numbers, can be seen only through a microscope." 

 And something like this was the common belief 

 of the time. 



In the middle decades of the nineteenth century 

 the controversy over the question of the origin of 

 life became acute ; and finally, after many battles, 

 the authority and brilliant experimental genius of 

 Pasteur convinced almost the whole scientific 

 world that life, nowadays at least, never arises 

 save from preceding life. In 1864 Pasteur, 

 lecturing at the Sorbonne before a large and 

 distinguished audience, spoke the following dra- 

 matic words : — 



"And therefore, gentlemen, I could point to 

 that liquid and say to you, ' I have taken my drop 

 of water from the immensity of creation, and I 



