212 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



phenomena are connected by links of cause and 

 effect : in a word, that the Universe, known and 

 unknown, to us forms one consistent and harmonious 

 whole, is only a faculty of otir nature, like that 

 of fellow feeling or the love of truth, though it 

 should admit of a passion equally intense. Else 

 it should be a system which admits of no interpre- 

 tation whatsoever and have no rational foundation. 



The problem of the origin of life, even if it should 

 imply directive forces, would therefore not on that 

 account lie beyond the limits of the knowable, or, 

 in other words, of the intelligible world. 



