^ 



* 



^//•^. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



69 



_> 



'^^^ -ho. , 



kind of entity or self-existent principle. But whilst 



* 



we say that Life is a result of organization^ we diO 

 not necessarily mean of an organization which is 

 capable of being discovered by 



means 



r 



i\ 



11 



''^"^^ition of i scopes — rather^ of a molecular organization^ in the 



sense of a peculiarly complex and unstable colloca- 

 tion of the component atoms of the matter displaying 

 Life^ which may exist to perfection after its own 

 fashion, even in what appears to be the perfectly 

 structureless jelly-mass constituting one of the Vrot- 

 amoeba of Professor Haeckel. And it is important to 

 keep this difference in view — to remember that the 

 only organization necessary for the display of Life is 

 a molecular organization which, in the common accep- 

 tation of the term, has often been regarded as no or- 



force does 



^^'^ postulate, 

 with it 



) because 

 ^t it doess 



k 



rinc of the Q., 

 more? Doesi 

 nplest kind I; 



ing organic^' 





; are to be \% 



ganization at all. 



Mr. Lewes 



says, "^Although the 



f organic niok question whether Life precedes Organization has been 



^ the expend- 



the dynamic I 

 tcs would coi« 



/ital, and S 



suit 



'ord'Lif^' 

 of ^¥' 



i 



■c w 



jlding, 



ation 



as 



tlic 



f 



iso 



c 



It 



of ob^*« : 



often asked, it is a question mal pose'e. If by organiza- 

 tion we are to understand not simply organic substance, 

 but a more or less complex arrangement of that sub- 

 stance into separate organs, the question is tantamount 

 to asking whether the simplest animals and plants have 

 life ? And to ask the question whether Life precedes 

 organic substance, is tantamount to asking whether the 

 convex surface of a curve precedes the concave, or 

 whether the motions of a body precede the body 1.' If 

 the word 'organization' is comprehended in its wider 



le, 



Force 



15 



1 ( 



Fortnightly Review/ July, 1868, p. 73. 



