In all these different forms and species of products of art we possess, therefore, boundless masses of obvious and visible evidence that life is not a quality of matter. In order to break through the mechanical causality and introduce into the material world effects which never could be spontaneously forthcoming, life must have a supernatural origin, must be a principle independent of matter. By resuming the demonstration that the materialists had broken off, we arrive therefore at the same conclusion that natural science had already drawn before from external observation, and with which the question of the nature of life-force is inseparably connected. The qualities of matter itself demonstrate clearly that spontaneous generation never has been, is not and never will be possible, and the tremendous labor spent during centuries to prove this by external observation seems almost a waste of time. We might as well pick out a table full of stones and sit down expecting some of them to undertake a flight around the room, as to expect living substance to come forth spontaneously from dead matter. The intrinsic qualities of matter tell us that only hope for the former occurrence can warrant faith in the latter. We thus consider it demonstrated that Harvey’s formula is a universal natural law and we may now draw its logical consequences: _Life is not a material force; no living being can therefore arise from dead matter; all life has a supernatural origin in a higher immaterial world_. CHAPTER VIII. The Soul and the Cells.