THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 69 



common enough in our schools of a supposed 

 higher learning. 



Since scientists can no longer, without commit- 

 ting themselves to the most patent absurdities, 

 deny the existence of a soul, they see'k to gloss 

 over the dreadful' fact by calling it strange names 

 in Greek: "biotic energy," "entelechy," "bath- 

 mic force," "genetic energy," and what not. By 

 this they mean, in man for instance, that life- 

 principle which Christians call a human soul. 



Causo-mechanism, the purely materialistic con- 

 cept of life, which sees in every living cell merely 

 a machine driven by some unknown force, care- 

 fully separated from the idea of any Divine and 

 intelligent agent who might have brought it into 

 being and is now directing it, reminds us of the 

 clown who, as the story was told to me, appeared 

 on the stage with a little trained automobile, 

 that followed him about, and leaped upon his 

 knee, and was delighted to be fondled by its mas- 

 ter's hand, to the huge amusement of the chil- 

 dren, young and old. 



It was all, of course, merely a clever mechani- 

 cal device, as everybody knew. But when our sci- 

 entists can give to us an automobile that of itself, 

 without any mechanical help, can perform all 

 these tricks; whose motor has the power to con- 

 vert the gasoline, with whi.ch it is daily fed, into 

 glass for the lamp, oil for the wick, rubber for 

 the tires, iron for the wheels, and metal of what- 

 ever kind for the rest of the complicated mechan- 



