ORIGIN OF LIFE. 25 
has been supposed, or the molecules of dead matter, 
for no valid or intelligible reason that is assigned, are 
able to re-arrange themselves into living bodies, exactly 
such as can be demonstrated to be frequently produced 
in another way, I cannot understand how choice can be, 
even for a moment, doubtful.” Having thus expressed 
himself, it was a little strange that Professor Huxley 
almost immediately afterwards forgot to inform his 
audience what “valid or intelligible reason” he was 
able to assign for the occurrence of that evolution of 
not-living matter into living protoplasm, in the remote 
past to which he alluded. A supernatural interposi- 
tion of creative power would explain the presence of 
living things upon our earth, just as easily as a super- 
natural preservation of living matter from the destruc- 
tive effects of heat would account for the presence of 
living organisms within certain experimental flasks. 
But Professor Huxley most inconsistently says that 
even in the face of scientific evidence concerning the 
destructive powers of heat upon living matter, he would 
rather explain the presence of organisms in certain 
flasks on the hypothesis of a (supernatural) preserva- 
tion of germs, than believe in the otherwise proved 
occurrence of a present life-evolution similar to that 
which he assumes to have taken place in the past. He 
is willing to accept the supernatural in the present, 
though he declines to interpret the past by its aid. He 
