'Use!' cried Haddo passionately. 'What do you think would be man's
sensations when he had solved the great mystery of existence, when he saw
living before him the substance which was dead? These _homunculi_ were
seen by historical persons, by Count Max Lemberg, by Count Franz-Josef
von Thun, and by many others. I have no doubt that they were actually
generated. But with our modern appliances, with our greater skill, what
might it not be possible to do now if we had the courage? There are
chemists toiling away in their laboratories to create the primitive
protoplasm from matter which is dead, the organic from the inorganic. I
have studied their experiments. I know all that they know. Why shouldn't
one work on a larger scale, joining to the knowledge of the old adepts
the scientific discovery of the moderns? I don't know what would be the
result. It might be very strange and very wonderful. Sometimes my mind is
verily haunted by the desire to see a lifeless substance move under my
spells, by the desire to be as God.'
He gave a low weird laugh, half cruel, half voluptuous.
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