28 From Matter to Man. 



for we are to conceive what is inconceivable and to 

 know what is unknowable. Postulated beyond the 

 laws of thought, the laws of thought are yet to make 

 a First Cause thinkable : postulated beyond the laws 

 of knowing, the laws of knowing are yet to make a 

 First Cause knowable ; and postulated beyond the laws 

 of existence, the laws of existence are yet to make a 

 First Cause existable. Hence, if the acceptance by 

 man of what is utterly inconceivable depends upon 

 his conception of that negation as something neces- 

 sarily conceivable, we harbour a logic fit only for 

 lunatics, teach a philosophy fit only for fools, and live 

 a life fit only for phantoms. 



Brushing aside all unverifiable assumptions, two 

 alternative hypotheses of a first cause and a first 

 origin to existence remain : — 



Firstly : That existence originated itself. 



Since scientists demonstrated the impossibility of 

 anything external to existence creating existence as 

 a whole, seeing that existence has no externals, the 

 orthodox naively imagine that the only alternative 

 involves self-creation, or the contradictory hypothesis 

 of an existence which created itself. Facetious theo- 

 logians thus make merry over this crude deduction 

 from their own ignorance, and jubilantly announce as 

 evolution's last answer to the problem of creation the 

 whimsical reply of Topsy, when interviewed on her 

 origin, " 'Spects I growed." But, unfortunately for 

 the merrymakers, the retort is fatal where they least 

 expect it ; for, if we questioned their own Deity, or 



