CHAPTER IV 



MATERIALISTIC AND THEISTIC VIEWS OF THE EVOLUTION 

 OF THE INORGANIC WORLD 



In anticipation of what Haeckel has to say about the 

 evolution of animals and plants as well as the psycho- 

 logical phenomena of man's " soul," he is obliged to look 

 somewhere for a natural source of life in organisms. 

 But besides this he must also find a source of sensation 

 and will^ and generally for a soul. 



He starts with the fundamental ether filling all space 

 and permeating all bodies, being infinite and eternal. 

 He says : " The existence of ether as a real element is a 

 positive fact. ... As we assure ourselves of the exist- 

 ence of ponderable matter by its mass and weight, by 

 chemical and mechanical experiments, so we prove that 

 of ether by the experiences and experiments of optics 

 and electricity." ^ 



The reader will observe that the nature of the proofs 

 is not identical. The former is experimental verification, 

 the latter induction, the ether being assumed to exist in 

 order to account for the transmission of light ; the pro- 

 babilities of its existence being of such a high order, that 

 its absence becomes unthinkable. 



Let us now follow his assumptions and we shall then 

 be able to form some estimate of the probabilities of 

 their being true or otherwise. 



' Op. cit., pp. 230, 231. 

 (28) 



