ORIGIN OF LIFE. 33 
sarily unstable equilibrium. All homogeneous matter 
inevitably tends to become more or less heterogeneous, 
and, of the different kinds of matter, none unites within 
itself the various qualities tending to favour this pas- 
sage from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous in 
the same degree as living matter. These tendencies 
are daily exemplified to us by the phases of embryonic 
development passed through by the more or less homo- 
geneous germs of multitudinous complex organisms. 
The embryonic development of one of the higher ani- 
mals—of man himself for instance—is a kind of highly 
condensed epitome of animal evolution in general. 
And the varied forms of life of higher organization, 
both animal and vegetal, which have existed, and still 
exist, upon the surface of our earth, are all supposed 
by the Evolutionist to have arisen by dint of insensible 
modifications wrought through the long lapse of ages 
upon successive generations of organic forms. But if 
living matter, situated as it is and has been, contains 
within itself the potentiality of undergoing such mighty 
changes and of ever growing in complexity—if from 
originally structureless protoplasm (that is, structure- 
less to our senses) all the varied forms of life have been 
derived, how is it that some of this very same matter 
should have remained through the long lapse of ages 
almost in its primitive structureless condition? Why 
should one portion of the living matter which came 
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