344 CREATOR OF LIVING MUST BE LIVING. 



power as being super-physical will almost necessarily be led 

 to believe that the Creator of such power has attributes in- 

 finitely transcending those which any supposed creator of the 

 inorganic only would need. The Creator of the living must 

 be ever living, and must possess power to form, guide, govern, 

 and vary, which would be useless to one who could only 

 create non-living matter and its forces. In fact, if we admit 

 that there really are living things at all, it is not possible 

 to resist accepting the idea of the existence and constant 

 superintendence of an all Powerful influence in Nature, such 

 as has been recognised in every age, and by nearly all 

 people regarded as supernatural and distinguished as Divine. 

 Not only so, but 1 think the facts of the case render it not 

 unreasonable to assume that present and constant guidance 

 continually acting superintendence will be found to be a 

 necessary part of that hypothesis which shall afford us most 

 assistance in our efforts to discover an explanation of the 

 phenomena peculiar to the living world. While it is per- 

 haps possible that the inorganic changes of the non-living 

 might be adequately accounted for upon the hypothesis of a 

 first cause temporarily, perhaps only momentarily active in 

 the first beginning, and then finally extinguished. 



But if we pursue another method, and commence by the 

 consideration of the structure and action of any fully formed 

 animal machinery, we shall find that from the contemplation 

 of animal mechanism, of the most perfect character we shall 

 soon be led to enquire into the preceding state of the matter 

 of which the organs and structures are composed. In that 

 case we find ourselves endeavouring to search for the cause 

 of the phenomena of the formless living matter out of which, 

 as we know by observation and experiment, every animal 



