This problem treats of the question as to the arising of the world
in general and life in particular--thus, has its foundation in the
methodical play against one another of two absurdities; as indeed
follows from the possibility of reversing the positions. If the
materialist asks, “How has life come into the world?” the idealist
equally inquires, “How has the world entered into life, _i.e._ into
me, into my consciousness?” From the outset, it is obvious that here
both are provided with unlimited scope for the performance of mental
feats worthy to rank on equal terms with the derring-do of a “raging
Roland.” And as the Duke of Florence asked of the worthy Ariosto,
“Messer Ludovico, where ever did you learn all those tricks?” so here,
in similar wise, one might ask, “Master of the lecture-room, master of
the crucible and the retort, where ever did you learn all those tricks?”
For biologist and physicist the train of reasoning here runs as
follows:--
“Life is present! Proof: I, the thinker!” The first rule of play in the
cosmic game, according to scientific principles, is: “God” does not
count--just as in a vaulting contest the stick does not count. This
granted, the whole problem embodies itself in these two possibilities:--
(_a_) Has life arisen through spontaneous generation? (_b_) Has it
descended hither from beginninglessness?
The question of spontaneous generation has undergone manifold
vicissitudes. Aristotle made use of spontaneous generation with perfect
ingenuousness, not to say unstinted lavishness. The more, however,
continued experiment taught that where one had hitherto imagined one
beheld the arising of new life, serious mistakes had been made--that
germs of life had found their way into the medium, all the more did men
turn away from the idea of a _generatio spontanea_. The experiments of
Pasteur seemed to give the decisive blow. Wherever life is present,
life is presupposed.
To-day men give their opinion on the subject of the possibility of
spontaneous generation with that cautious reserve which has been learnt
from the calculation of probabilities.