65 
SOME GUESSES BY AN IGNORAMUS. 
RoBeRT W. McBribe. 
The average man of science, when he hears this paper read. is likely 
to exclaim with Pope,—‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’. I 
frankly confess myself an ignoramous as to matters of science. I can claim 
only such superficial knowledge of matters that are commonly classed as 
scientific, as may be acquired by any busy professional man who thinks. 
and whose thoughts carry him beyond the boundaries of his own profession. 
We are surrounded by matters clothed in mystery. To the man who thinks. 
there is nothing more fascinating than a study of these mysteries. We 
want “to see the wheels go round”, and to learn what makes them go. As 
a general thing, however, our thinking can’t carry us very far. We find the 
problems perplexing, and we are content to leave their solution to men of 
science, and are prone to accept their explanations as the average orthodox 
churchman takes his theology—on faith. Occasionally, however, we find 
heterodoxy in matters of science, as well as in matters of theology. Some- 
how some of the explanations do not seem to explain. For instance,—the 
attempts of science to explain the problems relating to life and evolution 
fail to satisfy me. This of course may be due to my ignorance, and to my 
inability to comprehend. Still an ignoramus may have ideas, and though 
his ideas may be wide of the mark. may there not be times when even 
ignorance stumbles onto a truth? 
All about us are living things, but what is it that makes them live? What 
is life? All about us are different types of living things, but what is the 
cause of the difference? Were they all different from the beginning, or did 
they all begin alike, and have the differences resulted from causes operat- 
ing since they began? Has man always been man, or did he begin as 
something else? 
I am encouraged to make some suggestions concerning these matters, 
because as to life science gives no satisfactory answer, and as to evolution 
many things are advanced that are confessedly mere guess work. When 
men of science attempt to tell what life is, their answers remind one of 
the Lord’s answer to Job in the whirlwind.—‘Who is this that darkeneth 
counsel by words without knowledge?” As a rule, they use a multitude of 
words and end with a guess. Two of the latest pronouncements that have 
come to my knowledge are by Sir Oliver Lodge and our own Edison. Sir 
Oliver Lodge, in one of his latest published utterances, says: 
“To show that the living principle in a seed is not one of the forms 
of energy, it is sufficient to remember that that seed .can give rise to 
innumerable descendants through countless generations without 
limit. It is nothing like a constant quantity of something to be 
shared, as there is in all examples of energy. There is no conserva- 
tion about it. The end embodies a stimulating and organizing prin- 
ciple which appears to well from a limitless source.” 
In a recent issue of the Scientific American, I find an interview with 
Edison, who says that— 
