THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



this condition is permanent and motion is impossible. 

 Next comes the jump; somewhere in the universe 

 they, arbitrarily and contrary to their own postulate 

 of universal homogeneity, suppose an atom to be dis- 

 placed in order that the balance of forces may be 

 disturbed, that motion may begin and the accumula- 

 tion of matter at certain points may occur. What dis- 

 turbs this balance*? Just there is the jump which 

 breaks the argument. Laplace limits himself to ques- 

 tions of mechanical phenomena, but Kant sees that, 

 when the earth is evolved sufficiently far, life must 

 appear and here again a second jump occurs; chem- 

 ical atoms must unite in a certain way so that the 

 first simple forms of life may appear spontaneous- 

 ly, although spontaneous generation has never been 

 observed and its denial is a postulate of biological 

 experience. It is proper, here, to mention that Kant 

 proposed his nebular hypothesis in his youth and with 

 matured thought he made an unqualified denial of the 

 monistic doctrine of matter and life : "It is certain we 

 cannot learn to know sufficiently organic beings and 

 their inner possibilities by mere mechanical principles 

 of nature; much less can we explain them; and this 

 is so true that we can boldly affirm it is absurd for us 

 either to conceive such an idea, or to hope that some 

 day a Newton will appear who will be able to make 

 even the generation of a blade of grass comprehen- 

 sible by natural laws without the intervention of De- 

 sign: we must positively deny that such insight is 



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