Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a general uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or physical basis, of life, in whatever group of living beings it may be studied.  But it will be understood that this general uniformity by no means excludes any amount of special modifications of the fundamental substance.  The mineral, carbonate of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, though no one doubts that, under all these Protean changes, it is one and the same thing.

And now, what is the ultimate fate, and what the origin, of the matter of life?

Is it, as some of the older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout the universe in molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable in themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in innumerable permutations, into the diversified forms of life we know?  Or, is the matter of life composed of ordinary matter, differing from it only in the manner in which its atoms are aggregated?  Is it built up of ordinary matter, and again resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done?

Modern science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives.  Physiology writes over the portals of life—­

“Debemur morti nos nostraque,"[102]

with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that melancholy line.  Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether fungus or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the paradox may sound, could not live unless it died.

In the wonderful story of the Peau de Chagrin,[103] the hero becomes possessed of a magical wild ass’ skin, which yields him the means of gratifying all his wishes.  But its surface represents the duration of the proprietor’s life; and for every satisfied desire the skin shrinks in proportion to the intensity of fruition, until at length life and the last handbreadth of the peau de chagrin, disappear with the gratification of a last wish.

Balzac’s [104] studies had led him over a wide range of thought and speculation, and his shadowing forth of physiological truth in this strange story may have been intentional.  At any rate, the matter of life is a veritable peau de chagrin, and for every vital act it is somewhat the smaller.  All work implies waste, and the work of life results, directly or indirectly, in the waste of protoplasm.

Every word uttered by a speaker costs him some physical loss; and, in the strictest sense, he burns that others may have light—­so much eloquence, so much of his body resolved into carbonic acid, water, and urea.  It is clear that this process of expenditure cannot go on for ever.  But, happily, the protoplasmic peau de chagrin differs from Balzac’s in its capacity of being repaired, and brought back to its full size, after every exertion.