46 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



tion of these railroads and buildings, we would say that 

 it is by reason of the fact that he is an intelligent being. 



The intelligence of man is the intelligence possessed 

 by the cells in his brain. If man is intelligent and by 

 virtue thereof is able to combine and arrange matter and 

 force so as to effect structures such as houses and rail- 

 roads, why is not the cell also intelligent when he is able 

 to direct the forces of nature so as to effect the structures 

 we see such as plants and animals. The cell is not com- 

 pelled to act by reason of any chemical and mechanical 

 force, any more than is man. He acts by reason of a will 

 and judgment of his own. He is a separate living animal. 

 I see no reason to impute intelligence to the activities of 

 atoms and molecules any more than to bricks and stones. 

 Bergson in his "Creative Evolution" seems to see in mat- 

 ter and life a creative energy. If we stood at a distance 

 watching a skyscraper gradually grow into completeness, 

 we would say there must be some creative energy back 

 of it, pushing the construction and, if we could never get 

 near enough to see the men and builders at work we could 

 have no other idea of how that sky scraper came into ex- 

 istence except that it was caused by some creative energy. 



How do we know that the cell does actually build all 

 organic materials or living structure just as man builds 

 his larger structures, like machines, houses, railroads, 

 etc.? First because we can now see him do it. 



Second because matter itself is such that it never 

 could and never will produce anything living. Is it pos- 

 sible to demonstrate that all matter has this quality? I 

 think it is. Wherever a tree is growing or sprouting, 

 there the dead matter is being transformed into the liv- 

 ing, but wherever a tree or animal is dead or decaying, it 

 is gradually again turning into the organic matter. So it 

 is with structures produced by man. While a house or 



