308 KANTS GRADUAL DESCEN7" 



manner. The matter is changed by the power, however, at 

 a different rate, at different periods of life and under dif- 

 ferent circumstances. 



But if it were true that living matter was not to be 

 positively distinguished from matter that did not live, or, if 

 it were true that the living passed by gradations into the 

 non-living, the ideas I have put forward concerning living 

 matter would be inadmissible. Kant speaks of the gradual 

 descent " from man down to the zoophyte, from this even 

 to the mosses and lichen, an4 thus, at last, to the lowest 

 degree of Nature by us perceptible mere matter, whence, 

 as well as from her forces, ruled by mechanical laws, similar 

 to those by which she acts in the formation of crystals, the 

 whole mechanism of Nature seems to be derived;" and 

 many still think with Kant ; but such notions do not receive 

 and never have received the support of facts. They are not 

 in accord with the general results of observation and experi- 

 ment, but have always depended upon authority. They have 

 many very clever and very active advocates, who do not 

 consider inconsistency fatal to the reputation of every philo- 

 sophic system. In one form or another these views have 

 always been taught, and I believe will continue to be 

 enforced. But they are not true, and their supporters never 

 have at any time answered, nor can they now dispose of, the 

 arguments that have been advanced against these doctrines. 

 When pressed, they call in the aid of prophecy, and protest 

 strongly that they have faith in the infallible truths and in 

 the incontrovertible evidence that will be developed by the 

 really true science of the about to be. They are most 

 anxious that the coming race should be brought up in the 

 true faith that a miracle never happened, and always has 



