HORIZON LINES 



own ignorance, consumed by his own evil passions, 

 yet making steady progress toward the position 

 which he now holds in the animal kingdom. 



IV. SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM 



The bogey of teleology frightens a good many 

 honest scientific minds. To recognize anything akin 

 to intelligence in nature, or to believe that a uni- 

 versal mind is immanent in, or a part of, the cosmos, 

 is looked upon as disloyalty to the scientific spirit. 



Lamarck's idea of an indwelling directing princi- 

 ple in organic evolution discredited him with Dar- 

 win, and with the leading biologists since his time. 

 Yet Darwin said he could not look upon the uni- 

 verse as the result of chance. But he faltered be- 

 fore the other alternative — that any will or design 

 lay back of it. 



It is unfortunate that these words connote things 

 purely human, and to that extent are likely to lead 

 us astray. But are not all our terms human, even 

 the word "astray" itself? Can we have any other? 

 Emerson says that anything may be affirmed or de- 

 nied of the Infinite, and that God can be hinted only 

 in signs and symbols. In trying to describe time, we 

 need a new language that differs as much from our 

 ordinary speech as algebra differs from arithmetic. 

 The circle and sphere are the only complete types of 

 Infinity. 



In Professor Loeb's mechanistic conception of life 



211 



