94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Much the same might be said of the chemical, the electric, and 

 magnetic properties of matter. If they were among the original 

 powers, there is proof of design in their adaptation to one another and 

 to the matter of the universe. If they were not, then we have traces 

 of a new power being introduced, and for this we must look for a 

 cause. We are not able to say how many the properties possessed by 

 the original matter ; whether they were few or many. But in either 

 case there is evidence of contrivance in their harmonious action and 

 results. We see that there is an end proposed in the music that 

 comes from a violin, and this whether it is brought forth from one 

 string, as was done by Paganini, or from four strings, as is done by 

 the ordinary performer. So in the orderly and beneficent action of 

 Nature there is proof of adaptation, whether we suppose the original 

 properties to be few or to be numerous. 



Though preservation is in a sense a continued creation, yet preser- 

 vation differs from creation. In looking back on the histoi-y of the 

 world, it is often difficult to tell as to a certain work to which of these 

 two kinds of divine acts it belongs. We may not be sure, for example, 

 as to a new form of plant or animal, whether it is a creation or simply 

 a development according to law; and I am not sure that religion 

 gains by our taking one side or another. We cannot, we have seen, 

 determine for certain what were the powers of Nature that were 

 working from the very beginning. But it is clear and sure that 

 powers have appeared in Nature from time to time which did not 

 operate at first nor for long ages ; nay, if geology speaks truly, nor 

 for millions of years. There may be two suppositions in regard to 

 these powers. The one is, that they were all along in the original 

 matter ; that the star-dust had in it potentially not only gravitation 

 and chemical affinity, but life, sensation, consciousness, intelligence, 

 moral discernment, love. It is hard to believe that there was all this 

 in that dull, heated, nebulous matter from which our world sprang. 

 It is acknowledged that this mass must have existed for a long time 

 for hundreds of thousands, probably for millions of years before 

 life, and for a far longer time before intelligence, appeared. Whence 

 did these new powers come ? If they were in the original matter, how 

 did it come that they were so long dormant, how that they at last ap- 

 peared, it might be shown, at the appropriate time when surroundings 

 were prepared for them? Science can say nothing on this subject, and 

 may never be able to say anything. It is passing altogether beyond 

 its province, passing from inductive proof into speculation, when it 

 pretends to know anything one way or other. Philosophy feels itself 

 staggered when it would solve the problem. It does say, indeed, 

 that this new operation must have had a cause. It is one of the cer- 

 tain laws of intelligence, one of the universal laws of experience, that 

 everything that begins to be must have a cause. This law of causa- 

 tion takes several forms ; but every form will insist that these new 



