2i8 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



the molecules in an eggshell, wonderful though 

 such evolution may be, is only a moment in their 

 evolutionary career, and the vis a tergo began as far 

 back as the nebula, millions and millions of years 

 ago, and will impel them yet for millions and 

 millions of years to come. 



It is sometimes suggested that chemists will in 

 time be able to make protoplasm in their labora- 

 tories. It is quite possible that protoplasm may 

 be produced ; but the chemist who produces it 

 will be no more the maker of the protoplasm than 

 the man who winds up a watch is a watch-maker, 

 or the man who sows an acorn is an oak-maker, or 

 than the man who feeds his brain is a brain-maker, 

 or than Bastian is a microbe-maker. All that 

 chemists will ever be able to do will be to set 

 certain molecules at work to collect others. But, 

 as in chess, it is the opening moves that count ; 

 and they may never be able to find the openings, 

 which in the case of Nature were nebulas. 



