PREFACE 9 



evidence for the evolution of man's soul from that of a 

 lower animal is as cogent as that for the evolution of his 

 body. The mind of man differs only in degree from the 

 mind of the lower animal : it is the same vital principle in 

 a higher phase of development. The spiritualist is, there- 

 fore, compelled to claim that all life is immaterial in its 

 nature. The vital principle that first unfolds its powers in 

 the tiniest and simplest living things, and advances by a 

 continuous evolution up to its most splendid manifestation 

 in the brain of man, is distinct at the very root from the 

 familiar agencies in nature. It belongs to a different world 

 of being, and merely manifests itself through material frames, 

 for some inscrutable reason, when the proper conditions are 

 given. It is a kind of spiritual reservoir, existing apart from 

 the cosmic fund of material energies. Little bits detach 

 themselves from the " big lump " (in Sir Oliver Lodge's 

 words) and animate material bodies. When the frames 

 decay they go back into the immaterial world. 



This is the theory now advanced by Sir Oliver Lodge as 

 a basis on which theology may be rationally reconstructed. 

 The fact that his large scientific attainments lie entirely 

 outside the domain of biology (the science of life), and that 

 his views have met with a very hostile reception on the part 

 of the biologists of this country, must indeed induce us to 

 examine his theory in the critical mood in which, for instance, 



