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308 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



too, living; things manifest 



will inevitably be influenced by the current doctrines 

 entertained concerning ^Life' — ^just as these notions^in 

 their turn, are held in subjection to, and are made to 

 harmonize with, higher philosophical or religious beliefs. 

 The influence of such general considerations is im- 

 mense, and they are only too apt, even unconsciously, 

 to warp the judgments of many of us in our attempts 

 to interpret facts. Then, 

 such complex properties that the whole notion of Life 



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has been shrouded in mystery. Biologists at first could 

 not bring themselves to believe — some cannot do so 

 now — that the phenomena which living things manifest 

 are absolutely dependent upon the properties of the 

 variously organised matter entering into their com- 

 position. They were obliged to have recourse to some 

 metaphysical entity — some ^anima,' ^arch^eus,' or ^vital 

 principle' — under whose directing influence the living 

 form was supposed to be built up, and upon whose 

 persisting influence many of the phenomena of Life 

 were thought to depend. The aid of no similar meta- 

 physical ^principle' has, however, been deemed necessary 

 in order to account for crystalline structures and pro- 

 perties. It was in the main conceded by most physicists, 

 and the doctrine remained unquestioned by biologists, 

 that matter of certain kinds might, by virtue of its 

 own inherent properties, aided by certain favourmg 

 circumstances — and quite independently of all pre- 

 existing germs — fall into such modes of collocation as 

 to give rise to crystals. But, owing to the influence of 



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