298 PROGRESSION FROM FORCE 



composition, structure, and properties of the matter pro- 

 duced, must, as it seems to me, be referred to the influence 

 of these different antagonistic forces acting upon matter from 

 opposite directions. 



It has been affirmed that all the phenomena of living 

 matter are due to the operation of the same laws which 

 govern the non-living world. But of these supposed laws 

 absolutely nothing is known, and there is nothing absurd 

 or contrary to fact, though it may not be in accord with the 

 prophetic spirit of materialism, in the view that these powers 

 of living matter are utterly different from any known inor- 

 ganic forces, and have nothing whatever to do with them. 

 They may have emanated from power, instead of being 

 matter-born. They may even require, for their very exist- 

 ence, constant supervision of power, for ought we can 

 prove to the contrary, and they may have been created and 

 may be sustained by creating power, instead of being a 

 mere form or mode of created force, itself another but very 

 different product of creation. Life power, after all, only 

 temporarily enthrals any material particles. Matter soon 

 escapes from . the influence of life power ; but the living 

 matter that has once lost its distinctive life character never 

 regains it. Between life power and force there is, as it 

 seems to me, no true analogy whatever. The suggestion 

 that there is a gradual progression from the inorganic to the 

 living is devoid of any foundation in fact, and nothing but 

 the constant brandishing of the intellectual club will serve 

 to impress upon thoughtful people that they must not, in 

 these days, refuse to receive the doctrine of " Nature's great 

 progression from blind force to conscious intellect and 

 will !" 



