"Preparations for Life" 29 



§13. Criticisms. 



Let lis now allow the critic to have his innings. He 

 may urge that the facts we state are true enough, but 

 that the phrase "preparations for life" is quite un- 

 scientific. The arrangements that came about were 

 necessitated by the nature of the materials. Thus the 

 widespread abundance of Carbon, Hydrogen, and 

 Oxygen elements on the surface of the cooling earth 

 probably had to do, as Mendeleeff suggested, with 

 their small atomic weights. Surely, there is something 

 in the molecular structure of water which forces it to 

 expand as it is about to freeze. To this we must 

 frankly agree. The idea of "preparations for" is not 

 in the strictest sense a scientific idea; it is not a 

 description, but an interpretation ; it means seeing the 

 pre-conditions in the light of the results. But perhaps 

 we sometimes carry methodology too far. As long as 

 we are studying non-vital phenomena in themselves, 

 and without thought of their outcome, the question 

 "Why?" does not ever suggest itself. But when we 

 pass from things to living creatures, the question 

 "Why?" becomes insistent. Not the philosophical 

 "Why?" as to ultimate meaning; but a scientific 

 "Why?" objectively teleological. Thus, in studying 

 the development of an animal we feel bound to say: 

 Look how stage D paves the way for stage E ; look 

 how these varied factors conspire in the production 

 of an eye. Perhaps, therefore, it is not quite illegiti- 

 mate to say : See how the properties of water facilitate 

 the emergence and continuance of Life. In any case, 



