132 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



and convergence of forces resident in inorganic matter, and 

 not through the intervention of any exterior agency. 



The protagonists of spontaneous ■ generation, therefore, as- 

 sert not merely a passive, but an active, evolution of living, 

 from lifeless matter. As to the fact of the origin of the 

 primal organisms from inorganic matter, there is no controversy 

 whatever. All agree that, at some time or other, the primordial 

 plants and animals emanated from inorganic matter. The sole 

 point of dispute is whether they arose from inorganic matter 

 by active evolution or simply by passive evolution. The pas- 

 sive evolution of mineral matter into plants and animals is an 

 everyday occurrence. The grass assimilates the nitrates of the 

 soil, and is, in turn, assimilated by the sheep, whose flesh be- 

 comes the food of man, and mineral substance is thus finally 

 transformed into human substance. In the course of met- 

 abolic processes, the inorganic molecule may doff its mineral 

 type and don, in succession, the specificities of plant, animal, 

 and human protoplasm; and this transition from lower to 

 higher degrees of perfection may be termed an evolution. It 

 is an ascent of matter from the lowermost grade of an inert 

 substance, through the intermediate grades of vegetative and 

 animal life, up to the culminating and ultimate term of ma- 

 terial perfection, in the partial constitution of a human nature 

 and personality, in the concurrence asi a coagent in vegetative 

 and sensile functions, and in the indirect participation, as in- 

 strument, in the higher psychic functions of rational thought 

 and volition. 



At the present time, the inorganic world is clearly the ex- 

 clusive source of all the matter found in living beings. All 

 living beings construct their bodies out of inorganic sub- 

 stances in the process of nutrition, and render back to the 

 inorganic world, by dissimilation and death, whatever they 

 have taken from it. We must conclude, therefore, the matter 

 of the primordial organisms was likewise derived from the 

 inorganic world. But we are not warranted in concluding that 

 this process of derivation was an active evolution. On the 



