It is true that the chemists have produced artificially certain organic compounds of inorganic elements, and they will probably go much further in this direction. But is this really something to be wondered at, when all organic substance is composed of inorganic elements which, wherever they exist, possess the same qualities? The question is how this organic substance is formed. Does it appear spontaneously in the chemist’s laboratory while he himself stands idle, observing the phenomenon, or must he interfere, guide and plan the activity of the chemical forces in order to obtain these artificial compounds? Why should not something similar take place in the laboratory of inorganic nature? There is, as far as our experience goes, no organic substance to be found due to the spontaneous action of known natural laws. What is the reason of this? How is organic matter formed in nature? And, further, is there no difference between the organic matter produced by the chemists and that present in _living_ nature? And if this difference proves to be that the former is _not_ organized while the latter always is, why cannot the chemists produce organized matter? If Büchner had proposed these or similar questions and taken time to think them over, he would have obtained a different result, but instead he breaks off his argumentation just where it should have commenced. Consequently the fault in the materialists’ process of thinking does not lie in the facts used as foundation for their argument. The premises and the beginning are correct. Just because organic matter consists of the same elements as inorganic, just for this reason natural science can decide whether the physical laws are able spontaneously to produce such matter and such machines. The materialists have stopped after providing the introduction; the continuation and the end are lacking. They have overlooked the whole series of scientific facts that stand in necessary correlation to the starting point. We have therefore only to resume the interrupted demonstration and will then endeavor to make the latter part as simple and comprehensible as Büchner made the former. CHAPTER VI. How Is Organic Matter Produced? The essential in matter is force. Strictly speaking, we comprehend nothing but forces. Every body manifests itself as resistance necessary to overcome if we wish to remove it from its place. What remains of the body if we think of it as deprived of this counter force? At least nothing remains that we can touch or by which we may obtain palpable evidence of its existence. Neither does there remain anything that we can see, as seeing depends upon resistance to light, reflection of the ether-waves. If the mountain exerted no resistance we would pass through it without feeling or seeing anything whatever.