ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



there is no hint of mind or soul; all is matter and 

 force. All the mechanists and energists and materi- 

 alists unconsciously endow their matter and force 

 with creative power, thus elevating them to the 

 rank of a Deus. 



Science knows no mysteries; it knows only insolu- 

 ble problems and comparatively few of them. But 

 may not one see mysteries in nature without being a 

 mystic? Physical facts may be inexplicable, but we 

 do not call them mysteries. The birth and develop- 

 ment of the cell is wonderful, but can we say that it 

 is mysterious? Does not mystery imply something 

 occult and unknowable? Is a biologist or evolution- 

 ist to be charged with mysticism because he refuses 

 to admit that the development of species is all a 

 matter of chance? If he believes, for instance, that 

 the horse as we know him was inevitable in that 

 small beast of Eocene times, the eohippus, is he to 

 be charged with a teleological taint? Or if we speak 

 of the predestined course of evolution are we un- 

 faithful to the true scientific spirit? Is not the acorn 

 predestined to become an oak? Does growth imply a 

 mysterious guiding force or principle? The little 

 brown house wren that fusses and chatters here 

 around its box on my porch has come all the way 

 from Central America. Did something guide it? 

 Life is full of this kind of guidance. Not much of na- 

 ture can be explained by addition and subtraction; 

 not much of it can be explained by mere mechanics, 



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