EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



watch-maker does not create the steel and rubies 

 and so forth of which his watches are made. 

 They were extant before him. And similarly the 

 doctrine of the conservation of energy teaches 

 that the substance of the cosmos, its corporeal 

 frame, is from everlasting. The scientific teaching 

 thus appears nicely to confirm the ancient concep- 

 tion of an aboriginal Chaos, into which the Deity 

 infused at some definite period the breath of life 

 or which He built into a machine, wound up and 

 set going. It is therefore possible to construct a 

 scientific defence for the doctrine of a primeval 

 entity, without form and void, which is presum- 

 ably " self -existent " whatever that may mean 

 and to which a Deity, conceived as independent 

 thereof and having His (or Her) habitat beyond the 

 range of any telescope yet constructed, has given 

 form and a finite period of activity. His sole ob- 

 ject in constructing it was, as Dr. A. R. Wallace 

 has lately written a book to prove, the production 

 of the human soul. Thereafter the machine will 

 run down, having served its purpose; and will so 

 remain unless its Maker should care to wind it up 

 again. 



On this position there are two criticisms to be 

 made. The first has reference to the origin of the 

 energy or stuff of which the universe is composed. 

 Plainly any ultimate answer which leaves out of 

 account or fails to explain the existence of the 

 universe, apart from its life or activity, cannot be 

 regarded as adequate, or even as true in so far as 

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