64 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science 



substance, will decay or dissolve into the various substances which enter 

 into its composition. Life is that which animates all things, from the 

 animalcule or the bacterium to man, and it does its work by the exercise 

 of force. Life drives that wonderful organ, the heart. It selects from 

 the food the substances it needs, puts them in place, and casts off the 

 residue. It drives the sap through the tree or plant, and unfolds the 

 leaf or flower. Until stayed by death it is acting, and its action is 

 force. The life which builds the tree, or paints the flower, does not 

 differ from that w'hich builds the man. Life is not an originator or a 

 planner. It builds the various structures of organic life, but in so 

 doing it simply follows the plans that are given it. The germs with 

 which it begins its work in building a structure, are its trestleboards 

 on which it finds the plans of that which it is to build. No micro- 

 scope or other instrument de\ised by man can examine one of those 

 germs and tell what it enfolds. That mysterious Intelligence that lies 

 back of the great law is the architect that draws the plans, and life 

 as it takes up its work with a given germ follows that plan without 

 deviation, except as it may be interfered with by outside influences. 

 An ovum and a spermatozoan encounter each other, they combine, and 

 the stage is set and the actors are present for the drama of life. Life 

 only waits for the proper and necessary conditions in the environment 

 for the play to begin. Science may exert all its powers, but it cannot 

 discover from that tiny germ what the production will be, but given 

 proper conditions life begins its work, and in that little cell it reads 

 the plans and specifications for the structure it is to build. With favor- 

 ing conditions and no outside interference, it follows those plans with- 

 out deviaton. It may develop and improve but it never originates. Life 

 is a master builder, and a master presei'ver, for its work does not end 

 with the building of the structure, it continues to preserve it. But where 

 should we look for the architect, — the originator of those plans and 

 specifications? Where, indeed, save in that Infinite Mind which lies 

 back of the great law that rules the universe. 



The conduct of mankind is regulated in accordance with the evidence 

 of our senses, and, unless we reject all of the evidence thus furnished us, 

 mind is only another name for the Infinite Intelligence that pervades the 

 universe, and is also the directing power through which man exercises 

 control over material things. True, the materialists tell us that mind 

 has no existence save as a function of the body, or of one of the body's 

 organs, and that thought is a mere secretion of the brain. Cabanis, 

 a distinguished French physician, expressed the idea in this way. He 

 said: 



"The brain is determined to thought, as the stomach is to diges- 

 tion, or the liver to the secretion of bile." 



The German, Voght, expressed the same idea in the following 

 language: 



"Thought stands in the same relation to the brain, as the bile 

 to the liver, or the urine to the kidneys." 



