] Hinton's "Philosophy and Religion," p. 40.

[32] 2 Cor. iv. 18.

BIOGENESIS.

"What we require is no new Revelation, but simply an adequate
conception of the true essence of Christianity. And I believe that,
as time goes on, the work of the Holy Spirit will be continuously
shown in the gradual insight which the human race will attain into
the true essence of the Christian religion. I am thus of opinion
that a standing miracle exists, and that it has ever existed--a
direct and continued influence exerted by the supernatural on the
natural."--_Paradoxical Philosophy._

"He that hath the Son hath Life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not Life."--_John._

"Omne vivum ex vivo."--_Harvey._

For two hundred years the scientific world has been rent with
discussions upon the Origin of Life. Two great schools have defended
exactly opposite views--one that matter can spontaneously generate life,
the other that life can only come from preexisting life. The doctrine of
Spontaneous Generation, as the first is called, has been revived within
recent years by Dr. Bastian, after a series of elaborate experiments on
the Beginnings of Life. Stated in his own words, his conclusion is this:
"Both observation and experiment unmistakably testify to the fact that
living matter is constantly being formed _de novo_, in obedience to the
same laws and tendencies which determined all the more simple chemical
combinations."[33] Life, that is to say, is not the Gift of Life. It is
capable of springing into being of itself. It can be Spontaneously
Generated.

This announcement called into the field a phalanx of observers, and the
highest authorities in biological science engaged themselves afresh
upon the problem. The experiments necessary to test the matter can be
followed or repeated by any one possessing the slightest manipulative
skill. Glass vessels are three-parts filled with infusions of hay or any
organic matter. They are boiled to kill all germs of life, and
hermetically sealed to exclude the outer air. The air inside, having
been exposed to the boiling temperature for many hours, is supposed to
be likewise dead; so that any life which may subsequently appear in the
closed flasks must have sprung into being of itself. In Bastian's
experiments, after every expedient to secure sterility, life did appear
inside in myriad quantity. Therefore, he argued, it was spontaneously
ge