A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 43 



protoplasm and life are necessarily linked together: " . . .if 

 it be admitted that we find in nature no reason why events should 

 occur together except the fact that they do, is it not clear that we 

 can give no reason why life and protoplasm should be associated 

 except the fact that they are? And is it not equally clear that this 

 is no reason why they may not exist separately ?" 



The next step in this survey and analysis of fundamental as- 

 pects of nature brings us to positive belief itself. As so often said, 

 science quite fails to find in matter and motion any intrinsic 

 virtue which sustains and directs the sequence of phenomena, and 

 is absolutely restricted to thediscovery of the mere sequence which 

 itself calls for (metaphysical) explanation. Hence there is nothing 

 in science which has any bearing on the causal origin or on the 

 reality of anything in nature, and we must go elsewhere for the 

 foundations of the belief that we may entertain in respect to such 

 matters. Brooks believes that "nature is intended" to be as it 

 is, and is a language which a rational being may read. Since the 

 rational being is perhaps himself a part of nature's mechanism, this 

 is equivalent to saying that one part of the mechanism is cognizant 

 of the purpose that animates the whole. This purpose is the effect 

 of a power, a sustaining and directing intelligence outside nature, 

 to which both the origin of nature and its maintenance from day 

 to day are due. It is not something which once for all set a deter- 

 minate cosmos spinning along the path of time with a full comple- 

 ment of " eternal iron laws." It is something which is at work 

 now, under every phenomenon. This is obviously Brooks' belief, 

 although being no propagandist he is far from enforcing it, indeed 

 leaves it in a measure to be inferred. What he wishes to make 

 plain is that science does not tell us why events happen a< we 

 learn they do, and so it tells us nothing of 'ultimate reality. The 

 question why the events we expect (from experience) should be 

 those that come to pass concerns not science but "the natural the- 

 ologian; for it is the same as the question, What is the Cause of 

 Nature? To this all must seek an answer for themselves; for 

 each has at his command all the data within the reach of any 

 student of science.' 



