338 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



are resident in matter, and teaches that living differs 

 from brute matter only in the relative complexity of 

 molecular structure, and of the higher integration of 

 forces which is the natural result of. complexity of 

 structure. When such assumption denies, as it usu- 

 ally does deny, the existence of any force outside of 

 matter ; when it makes matter, as such, the sole cause 

 of the countless evolutions which have occurred in 

 the past development of the universe ; when it at- 

 tempts, as does Virchow, to resolve the production 

 of the divers forms of life from inanimate matter 

 into a question of mere mechanics ; when, finally, it 

 not only ignores, but positively denies, the ever pres- 

 ent, unceasing action of the Divine administration ; 

 then we can as unhesitatingly pronounce it false, as 

 it is demonstrably so in predicating homogeneity of 

 protoplasm. Under such circumstances it is as diffi- 

 cult for the theist, without assuming the interven- 

 tion of a miracle, to conceive of the formation of a 

 single chemical compound from its constituent ele- 

 ments, not to speak of the spontaneous origination 

 of living matter, as it was to Darwin to picture to 

 his mind the production of an elephant by the sud- 

 den flashing of certain elemental atoms into living 

 tissues. Given matter, however, and forces compe- 

 tent to transform matter such forces, as well as the 

 matter which they affect, being always under the 

 guidance of the Divine administration and there is 

 nothing in the theory of the origination of living 

 from not-living matter, that is contrary either to faith 

 or philosophy. On the contrary, such a view is, as we 

 have seen, quite in harmony with both the one and the 



