5 6 THE AFFIRMATION OF A FACT 



came from something which did the same before it, and 

 also to a thing which we know was constructed by us and 

 cannot make another one like itself, and has no power to 

 move itself. 



On the other hand, nothing has ever been made by the 

 mechanist which possesses the properties and powers of 

 living matter, neither is it likely that anything of the kind 

 will ever be made by him. The mere suggestion of such a 

 thing is more monstrous than it would be to talk of the 

 possibility of a watch making itself, or crystallising out of 

 some mother watch-solution, or making another watch like 

 itself. 



The fallacy underlying many of the physical doctrines is 

 obscured, if not entirely concealed by the clever choice of 

 words and the ingenious use of metaphors. The words are 

 so chosen that a sentence in which a fact is merely affirmed 

 is mistaken by many a reader for one in which the explana- 

 tion of a fact is announced ; and by the introduction of two 

 or three words the meaning of which could not be ex- 

 plained in as many pages the risk which the author incurs 

 of the reader pausing to enquire if the great hard words 

 mean anything or nothing is slight enough. In speaking of 

 the phenomena of living beings, we have only to talk 

 of the changes occurring in " un differentiated organic 

 matter," the " process of differentiation," " force-conditioning 

 atomic machinery," " subtle influences," changes under 

 " sundry circumstances," and so forth, and there will be little 

 chance of our theories being called in question. If I speak 

 of the " plastic, molecular, organic protoplasmic substance 

 of the organism differentiating itself according to the 

 operation of external forces, and conditioning energy 



