16 



declarations, and to have their thinking done for them instead 

 of thinking for themselves. Such are some of the indications 

 of a decline of thought. 



The public are now-a-days assured that the phenomena of 

 the living world are due, not to life, but to the molecular 

 constitution of the matter of which the bodies of living things 

 are composed. Ere long, however, people will find that little 

 consolation, or information, is to be gained from the molecular 

 constitutions that may be, and then they will perhaps be con- 

 tent to be brought face to face with the facts as they are, and 

 will see that the conclusion, That matter became endowed with 

 vital power after, and perhaps very, very long after it had 

 acquired its molecular constitution, is more in accordance 

 with the facts of nature than the assumption, That all living 

 forms are due to non-living properties, and that no powers 

 whatever have been communicated to matter and no direct 

 metabolic influence exerted, since its first creation. 



It is not now easy to get a hearing for arguments in favour 

 of views concerning the nature and action of living things 

 which in any way conflict with what happens to be the current 

 opinion of the time. The educated public has much to answer 

 for as regards the unmeasured support it has for years past 

 given to speculative thought of a most one-sided character, as 

 well as for the tyranny it has permitted and encouraged, and 

 still allows to be exercised towards any who put forward con- 

 clusions which happen to be opposed to the fashionable 

 dogmas of the day. 



Can applause or great popularity afford any excuse for the 

 unfair way in which many popular authorities have put the 

 question of vital actions in living things before their hearers. 

 The alternative view is almost invariably represented as an 

 absurdity, or a perverse misrepresentation of the facts. The 

 extent to which mere intellectual trickery is carried in these 

 days is marvellous ; but so few people think over what is 

 affirmed by teachers very popular at the time, that the most 

 astounding absurdities receive a sort of acquiescence, and long 

 escape the exposure they deserve. Those who differ from 

 materialists are credited with believing in all sorts of nonsense, 

 and are said to stand upon the ancient ways, while, in point 

 of fact, these professors of materialism in their style, in their 

 method of procedure, in what they teach as new are truly 

 most antiquated, for they are really trying to make the world 

 go back more than two thousand years, in order that it may 

 gain the inestimable advantage of reverting to a faith com- 

 pared with which Mahometanism is advanced, indeed. 



In his address to the medical congress, Professor Huxley 



