civ KEPOllT— 1871. 



moisture, gaseous atmosphere — to produce or to permit that to take place by 

 force or motion of dead matter alone, which is a direct contravention of what 

 seems to us biological law. I am prepared for the answer, " our code of 

 " biological law is an expression of our ignorance as weU as of our know- 

 " ledge." And I say yes : search for spontaneous generation out of inorganic 

 materials ; let any one not satisfied with the purely negative testimony, of 

 which we have now so much against it, throw himself into the inquiry. Such 

 investigations as those of Pasteur, Pouchet, and Bastian are among the most 

 interesting and momentous in the whole range of Natiu'al History, and their 

 results, whether positive or negative, must richly reward the most careful 

 and laborious experimenting. I confess to being deeply impressed by the 

 evidence put before us by Professor Huxley, and I am ready to adopt, as an 

 article of scientific faith, true through all space and through all time, that 

 life proceeds from life, and from nothing but life. 



How, then, did life originate on the Earth ? Tracing the physical history 

 of the Earth backwards, on strict dynamical principles, we are brought to a 

 'red-hot melted globe on which no life could exist. Hence when the Earth 

 was first fit for life, there was no living thing on it. There were rocks solid and 

 disintegrated, water, air all round, warmed and illuminated bj^ a brilliant Sun, 

 ready to become a garden. Did grass and trees and flowers sjiring into exist- 

 ence, in all the fulness of ripe beauty, by a fiat of Creative Power? or did vege- 

 tation, growing up from seed sown, spread and nniltii^ly over the whole Earth ? 

 Science is bound, by the everlasting law of honour, to face fearlessly every pro- 

 blem which can fairly be presented to it. If a probable solution, consistent 

 with the ordinary course of nature, can be found, we must not invoke an abnor- 

 mal act of Creative Power. "When a lava stream flows down the sides of Vesu- 

 vius or Etna it quickly cools and becomes solid ; and after a few weeks or 

 years it teems Avith vegetable and auimal life, which for it originated by the 

 transport of seed and ova and by the migration of individual living creatures. 

 When a volcanic island springs up from the sea, and after a few years is 

 found clothed Avith vegetation, we do not hesitate to assume that seed has 

 been wafted to it through the air, or floated to it on rafts. Is it not possible, 

 and if possible, is it not probable, that the beginning of vegetable life on the 

 Earth is to be similarly explained ? Every year thousands, probably mil- 

 lions, of fragments of solid matter fall upon the Earth — Avhcnce came these 

 fragments ? What is the jn-cA-ious history of any one of them ? Was it created 

 in the beginning of time an amorphous mass ? This idea is so unacceptable 

 that, tacitly or explicitly, all men discord it. It is often assumed that all, 

 and it is certain that some, meteoric stones are fragments which had been 

 broken off' from greater masses and laimched free into space. It is as sure 

 that collisions must occur between great masses moving through space as it 

 is that ships, steered without inteUigcnce directed to prevent colhsion, could 

 not cross and recross the Atlantic for thousands of years Avith immunity from 

 collisions. When tAvo great masses come into collision in space it is certain 

 that a large part of each is melted ; but it seems also quite certain that in 

 many cases a large quantity of debris must be shot forth in all directions, 

 much of Avliich may have experienced no greater violence than individual 

 pieces of rock experience in a land-slip or in blasting by gunpowder. Should 

 the time Avhen this Earth comes into collision Avith another body, comparable 

 in dimensions to itself, be Avhcn it is i-lill clolhed as at present with vege- 

 tation, many great and small fragments carrying seed and living plants and 

 animals would undoubtedly be scattered throueh space. Hence and lecanse 

 Ave all confidently believe that there ore at pre.'^cnt, and have been frcm time 



