8 PREFACE 



energies or movements associated with the basic forms of 

 matter, the belief in its immortality, already attenuated into 

 a wistful hope, thins away into nothingness. Since the 

 expert of either physical or biological science has, as such, 

 no concern with the nature of the human mind, there is 

 some apparent reason in his petulant insistence that he 

 cannot come into conflict with any rational scheme of 

 theology. But the ground is only apparent. And the 

 attempt of Sir Oliver Lodge to spiritualise the principle of 

 life, an attempt that has brought him into sharp conflict 

 with our biologists, puts the situation in an admirably clear 

 light. 



For some such demonstration as that essayed by Sir 

 Oliver Lodge is absolutely necessary if the distinct spiritual 

 world, on which theology builds in its teaching as regards 

 man, is to be maintained. It was thought by the late 

 Professor Mivart and by Dr. A. Russel Wallace that a stand 

 might be made against what is called " Materialism " at 

 the frontier of human history. The " whole cosmological 

 domain" might be yielded to the exactions of Tyndall, 

 provided we could mark off the human soul as something 

 essentially distinct from it and not involved in its ceaseless 

 dissolutions. Unfortunately for this position, the light that 

 has now been thrown on prehistoric man entirely prevents 

 us from accepting it. We shall see presently that the 



