46 the president's address. 



they arc apt to lose sight of the dividing-line between the original 

 foundation and the superstructure which later and more enthu- 

 siastic builders have erected upon it, and to condemn both together; 

 thus the thoroughly sound original proposition is often endangered 

 by the eagerness of its advocates. It seems to me that this is 

 rather the position of the Darwinian theory to-day ; its able 

 supporters have carried it very far indeed, carried it into many 

 things which were not originally contemplated, and which, although 

 they are none the worse for being beyond the original conception, 

 are certainly different, and may or may not be true. There are, 

 amongst many others, two main lines in which this may be, and is, 

 done. Firstly, it is strenuously asserted, by biologists whose 

 names are sufficient to ensure respect for all they say, that every 

 consistent evolutionist must admit that the process did not com- 

 mence at the lowest form of life, but that the springing of life 

 itself must be accounted for in the same manner. Now, at this 

 point I am compelled to part company with the evolutionists. I 

 cannot think that science requires us to believe that of which there 

 is not any evidence whatever, and the reasons for which must, it 

 seems to me, be purely speculative and deductive. I fail to see one 

 iota of evidence of any change of non-living matter into living 

 matter, except through the agency of life ; and it is, I think, 

 generally admitted that Dr. Bastian's long and able researches have 

 not supplied the want. I am not aware that any progress whatever 

 has been made towards obtaining such evidence, for I cannot 

 regard the facts of crystallization as in any way analogous to those 

 of life ; and, until such evidence be supplied, I should prefer to 

 adopt the Scotch verdict of " not proven." It may be true, or it 

 may not ; it appears to me that we simply do not know anything 

 about it. I am fully aware that this is a confession of ignorance, 

 and of the entire impotence of present science, with regard to the 

 greatest of all natural questions ; but surely this is not a reason 

 for putting forward an explanation which cannot be justified by 

 any proof whatever. It is not the only great problem of nature 

 which we cannot solve ; indeed, I am not sure that we are not in 

 the same position as to all the greatest. Who will give us any 

 sound or reliable information as to what life is, or what is 

 that subtle something that departs when an animal dies? (Of 

 course, in accordance with the • rules of this Society, I am 

 leaving the religious side of this and all other questions 



