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physical. In spite of all the confident utterances, no one has been able to 

 explain, in terms known to physical science, any one of the phenomena 

 occurring during any moment of the existence of the simplest living form 

 in nature. The pretended physical explanations of growth, of the taking 

 up of non-living matter and its conversion into living matter, the formation 

 of structures, of organs, of parts made for a purpose, are utterly inadequate, 

 while some are puerile, and would be dissipated by five minutes' careful 

 consideration on the part of any one who has the requisite knowledge of 

 the facts, as far as they are now known. Many of the statements about 

 life and living matter will not stand the criticism of an intelligent critic, 

 who, though knowing little or nothing of science, will take the trouble to 

 find out the meaning of the words and the sense in which they are used, in 

 order that he may detect cases in which words are inappropriate, and 

 instances in which the same word is used in very different senses perhaps 

 in the same page, as, for example, occurs in the use of the word " Proto- 

 plasm," which does duty for living matter, as well as for matter in the 

 opposite or non-living state. If we could trace the atoms of matter through 

 all their changes, until at last they lived, we should understand the nature 

 of life, we should be able to lay down the laws by which vital phenomena 

 are governed, we should understand the changes in our own bodies, we 

 should know ourselves as well as the matter of which our bodies are com- 

 posed. But in this case we should have spanned the infinite, solved all 

 problems, explained all the mysteries, overcome the theistic idea, and man 

 would have become a different being, and would find himself in a new 

 position in nature. 



But the changes which take place in the atoms as they flit from non-living 

 to living are still unknown, and the probability of our ever knowing their 

 real nature becomes less as knowledge advances. Man, notwithstanding all 

 scientific discovery and material progress, at least, as far as regards his 

 relation to and knowledge of the Infinite, stands much as he did in the 

 early days of intellectual evolution. Here, then, is the immeasurable 

 difference between the view entertained by us and that held by those who 

 accept or incline towards the fashionable philosophy of the period. We 

 who believe in the irreconcilable differences between living and non-living 

 have been led to conclude that a knowledge of the real nature of the change, 

 as well as a knowledge of the power by which the change is wrought when- 

 ever a lifeless atom becomes an integral part of living matter, is not to be 

 obtained. On the other hand, the supporters of the new philosophy declare 

 that all this and much more has been gained, and that much of what yet 

 remains imperfectly understood will be brought to light by the advancing 

 science of the future. "We hold that such knowledge is not even conceivable 

 in thought not cognisable by the human intellect. They declare that the 

 discovery of the nature of the vital change is nigh nay, that in some 

 respects it may be said that already it has been achieved. "We do not admit 

 that the road to such a goal has been found out or the method of proceeding 

 which will be successful suggested. They assure the world that wonderful 

 G 



