50 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



against the blue of God's unclouded heaven. Yet 

 the evil he has done lives after him. 



Self-existent matter and a self-propelling force 

 to set it in motion, such as Haeckel was obliged 

 to postulate in his new religion, are a contra- 

 diction and an absurdity from the view-point of 

 philosophy. Only a simple, infinitely perfect be- 

 ing can of its very nature be self-existent. So 

 too "matter" and "eternity" are contradictory 

 terms. Only a being not subject to change and 

 having in itself the reason for its existence can 

 be eternal. It is a question we cannot enter 

 upon here, but enough has been said to show how 

 completely it lies beyond the range of physical 

 and chemical science. To sum up in the words of 

 iVasmann : 



1 "An explanation of the first appearance of mat- 

 ter and of the first appearance of the laws gov- 

 erning it, is not possible, if we understand thereby 

 an explanation given by natural science; for this 

 starts with the assumption that matter and its laws 

 exist. But in the philosophical sense an explana- 

 tion of creation is possible. Philosophy shows us 

 plainly that matter is finite; the conception of mat- 

 ter and its properties involves its being essen- 

 tially limited and finite. It is therefore inherent 

 in its nature that it cannot of itself have existed 

 from all eternity, for that is possible only in 

 the case of a being of infinite perfection, an ens 

 a se, as ancient philosophy and theology worded it. 



