USE OF TIIK 1MAGINA T1ON. 43 7 



In more senses than one Mr. Darwin has drawn heavily 

 upon the scientific tolerance of his age. He has drawn 

 heavily upon time in his development of species, and he 

 has drawn adventurously upon matter in his theory of pan- 

 genesis. According to this theory, a germ, already micro- 

 scopic, is a world of minor germs. Not only is the organ- 

 ism as a whole wrapped up in the germ, but every organ of 

 the organism has there its special seed. This, I say, is an 

 adventurous draft on the power of matter to divide itself 

 and distribute its forces. But, unless we are perfectly 

 sure that he is overstepping the bounds of .reason, that ho 

 is unwittingly sinning against observed fact or demon- 

 strated law for a mind like that of Darwin can never sin 

 wittingly against either fact or law we ought, I think, to 

 be cautious in limiting his intellectual horizon. If there 

 be the least doubt in the matter, it ought to be given in 

 favor of the freedom of such a mind. To it a vast 

 possibility is in itself a dynamic power, though the pos- 

 sibility may never be drawn upon. It gives me pleasure 

 to think that the facts and reasonings of this discourse 

 tend rather toward the justification of Mr. Darwin, than 

 toward his condemnation; for they seem to show the per- 

 fect competence of matter and force, as regards divisibility 

 and distribution, to bear the heaviest strain that he has 

 hitherto imposed upon them. 



In the case of Mr. Darwin,, observation, imagination, 

 and reason combined have run back with wonderful 

 sagacity and success over a certain length of the line of 

 biological succession. Guided by analogy, in his " Origin 

 of Species" he placed at the root of life a primordial germ, 

 from which he conceived the amazing variety of the or- 

 ganisms now upon the earth's surface might be deduced. 

 If this hypothesis were even true, it would not be final. 

 The human mind would infallibly look behind the germ, 

 and however hopeless the attempt, would inquire into the 

 history of its genesis. In this dim twilight of conjecture 

 the searcher welcomes every gleam, and seeks to augment 

 his light by indirect incidences. He studies the methods 

 of nature in the ages and the worlds within his reach, in 

 order to shape the course of speculation in antecedent ages 

 and worlds. And though the certainty possessed by experi- 

 mental inquiry is here shut out, we are not left entirely 

 without guidance. From the examination of the solar. 



