PROVED TO BE TRUTH. Ij 



a few steps further backwards, and that a great first cause 

 still remains the source of all, and that, therefore, modern 

 scientific enquiry has only effected a change in our views 

 concerning the way in which \heprimam movens operates. 



But without venturing to express an opinion concerning 

 the modification in our views of the attributes and nature of 

 Deity, which must follow as a necessary consequence if 

 that first position as regards the nature of life should be 

 proved, and without attempting to indicate the probable 

 extent to which change in that case would necessarily, and 

 in a short time proceed, I shall remark that according to 

 sound principles of scientific investigation, it is inadmissible 

 to accept any general conclusion as true, until the facts and 

 arguments upon which it is supposed to rest have been 

 submitted to thorough examination. Whether its bearing 

 upon those great questions which are of overwhelming in- 

 terest to us all be important or insignificant, the facts upon 

 which the statements about the forming powers of force 

 are based should be examined before the theory is accepted, 

 and proved to be correct before the consequences which 

 flow from it are even taken into consideration. But this 

 has not been done. It is not true that the formation of the 

 simplest or any form of living thing whatever has been or 

 can be explained by mechanics or chemistry. Statement 

 after statement made in support of the physical doctrine of 

 life, even the very lowest, will be found to be untenable 

 at least in the present state of natural knowledge, as soon 

 as it shall be submitted to careful examination. On the 

 other hand, thanks to the steady progress of minute investi- 

 gation, unnoticed by popular writers, and, perhaps, unknown 

 to them, the conclusion that life of every kind is distinct 



