280 THE FOUNDATIONS OF ZOOLOGY 



a property of extended bodies is the fact that it is so ; and if we 

 had the same sort of evidence that life is a property of matter, I 

 do not see why this might not be equally conceivable. 



I have no sympathy with those who base their philosophical 

 creed on their hope and their faith that we shall some day be able 

 to see our way from the physical and chemical properties of pro- 

 toplasm to the responsive actions of living things as clearly as 

 we predict the movements of a watch from the form of its parts, 

 nor have I any more sympathy with those who, on what seems 

 to me an equal lack of proof, live in the hope and in the faith 

 that this consummation is necessarily and forever beyond the reach 

 of science ; for faith and hope are not knowledge, nor a creed 

 science. 



" Those who take a monistic view of the physical world," says 

 Huxley, "may fairly hold abiogenesis as a pious opinion, sup- 

 ported by analogy and defended by ignorance. But, as matters 

 stand, it is equally justifiable to regard the physical world as a 

 sort of dual monarchy. The kingdoms of living matter and of 

 not-living matter are under one system of laws, and there is a 

 perfect freedom of exchange and transit from one to the other. 

 But no claim to biological nationality is valid except birth." 



The assertion that there can be but one order of things, 

 because it is so much neater than two, is, of course, unworthy 

 the name of argument. 



The essential characteristic of life is fitness. A living organ- 

 ism is a being that uses the world around it for its own good. 

 I for one am unable to find, in inorganic matter, any germ of 

 this wonderful attribute. It is possible that after chemistry has 

 given us protoplasm this may be shaped by natural selection, or 

 some other purely physical influence, into persistent adjustment 

 to the shifting world around it, and that it may thus become 

 alive. 



Everything is possible to them who know nothing; but why 

 should we believe anything on this matter until we have evidence ? 



" Knowledge and truth may be in us without judgment, and 

 we may have judgment without them ; yea, the acknowledgment 

 of ignorance is one of the best and surest testimonies of judgment 

 that I can find." 



