jection; and how does he attempt to answer it? He endeavors to
show, first, that the work of creation having been _for the most part_
accomplished thousands of years ago, we have no reason to expect that
the origination of life and species should be _conspicuously
exemplified_ in the present day; secondly, that the comparative
infrequency, or even the entire absence, of such phenomena _now_ would
be no valid reason for believing that they have _never_ been exhibited
heretofore, if, on other grounds, the doctrine of 'natural creation' or
'life-creating laws' can be rendered probable; and, thirdly, that even
in our own times there ARE facts which seem to indicate the reality, or
at least the possibility, of "the primitive imparting of life and form
to inorganic elements."[45]

Now, to this elaborate argument in favor of _spontaneous generation,_ or
the production of life by natural law, we answer, in the first place,
that the mere fact of its being adduced in connection with the Theory of
Development affords a conclusive proof that it is indispensable to the
maintenance of that theory, that the hypothesis would be incomplete
without it, and that no account can be given of creation by the mere
doctrine of a _transmutation of species_. It is the more necessary to
make this remark, because not a few who embrace the latter doctrine
affect to disown the former, and seek to keep it out of view. But the
one is as necessary as the other to a complete theory of Natural
Development. The author of "The Vestiges" felt this, and virtually
acknowledges it when he undertakes the task of vindicating the
credibility of spontaneous generation. But we answer, in the second
place, that the method in which he performs his self-imposed task is
singularly curious, and not a little instructive. He had, it must be
owned, a difficult game to play. The general theory of "The Vestiges"
is founded on the fact that, in the ordinary course of Nature, the races
of plants and animals are perpetuated by propagation, according to
established Natural Laws,--a fact which might seem to afford a strong
analogical argument in favor of the supposition that the same order of
Nature is maintained also in the few apparently exceptional cases in
which, from our defective knowledge, we are unable to trace the
connection between the parent and the product. And yet the author
evinces no little anxiety to make out a case in favor of "a
non-generative origin of life even