;J40 I'ROFESSOR LIONEL S. BEALE, F.K.S., ON 



much lie iiuiy cling to his own A-iew.s, would desiic. I must 

 not say that no one has fonnd fault with nie, but the- 

 objections that have been raised have not touched the main 

 issue. 1 have replied, but the position seems to remain much 

 as it was. 



2. Now it scorns to me the first conclusion we must come to 

 is that the living ^vorld is very small and limited, and. the non- 

 living world enormous and infinite. When we think of the 

 very small amount of matter of our own earth, I am sure 

 that everyone n)ust feel tliat I am quite justified in making 

 this rcmaik — that tlie living loorld is a distinct loorld, and is 

 limited, and not one irith the tcorlds conrposcd of matter only. 



We all know, of course, that the great part of the matter 

 of which our world, and the whole of other worlds is made, 

 consists of matter of many kinds of which not one kind can 

 live. The greater part of all Avorld-material is not of the 

 nature to constitute a necessary part of living organisms. 



The living and the non-living are, and in my opinion have 

 ever been, distinct. So that when I am speaking of life, I 

 am only speaking of the life that is known to us here, not 

 that which may be. I speak of the living tilings which we 

 see, and know something about. I do not intend this evening 

 to attack, in the least degree, the question of the origin of life. 

 I wish to consider life as it is — the living things we see and 

 can examine, and parts of Avhich we can place under the 

 microscope, and see very much that Ave could not Inu'e 

 expected. We can also enter into various investigations con- 

 cerning them, and ascertain something of their nature. 



Furtlier I hold that all life is absolutely disthict from all 

 non-life ; and that there is no bridge, as has been assertetl 

 oA'^er and over again, betAveen the non-living and the living. 

 There is a gulf between life and non-life Avhich is uufath(nn- 

 ablo, and has never been bridged, and i cannot l)elieA''e that 

 it ever Avill be bridged. (Cheers.) 



8. All living things come as far as Ave knctAV (for as I said 1 

 am not going just now to enter into the question of the 

 origin of life), from pre-existing living things. As far as I 

 knoAv not a single proof has been advaiiced that justifies us 

 in considering that the non-liA'ing can be convertoil into the 

 living, except by the influence of existing life. This always 

 seems to be the case. A minute quantity of matter already 

 living may transfer without loss (and that is a most wonderful 

 thing) its [)OAver to an enormous quantity of matter ; but the 

 Uiatter must bccouu' [)art ot" that a\ hich is actually living at 



