2 From Matter to Man. 



present states of being and preceding states of being, 

 no matter how far our steps may be retraced. This, 

 however, is not the common belief. 



A well-known scientist, more noted for his ortho- 

 doxy than his accuracy, recently said, " Creation, 

 strictly speaking, is inconceivable to us, yet it is a 

 fact. The system of visible things in which we live 

 was certainly not the author of itself."* 



Now, " creation " was a word invented by the most 

 learned men of a byegone age, to express the notion 

 that something may be created out of nothing. This 

 was a simple matter to them, for the ignorant man's 

 imagination is illimitable, and vacuities naturally 

 beget vacuities. As this miracle however is, from the 

 indestructibility of matter, impossible, creation is a 

 fallacious and ignorant hypothesis, yet we are assured 

 it is a "fact." A "fact" again is a word denoting 

 something demonstrable ; but as creation is not de- 

 monstrable, our mentor's vocabulary again requires 

 revision. 



Further, although it may be quite true that the 

 system of visible things in which we live is no more 

 the author of itself than any man is the author of 

 himself, yet it is equally certain that as day but 

 succeeds day, and peer succeeds peer, so existence 

 is but an endless succession of " living pictures," a 

 panorama having no author, because requiring none, 

 other than that each picture had a picture preceding 



* The Duke of Argyle on " Prof. Huxley on the War-path," 

 Nineteenth Century, January 1 891. 



