44 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



According to observers various little difficulties are 

 surmounted by modifications in the method of laying 

 down the cell-plate ; just as an engineer will overcome 

 some local difficulty by skill and ingenuity. 



" Directivity " is thus very apparent at the very be- 

 ginning of life-work, 



Haeckel totally avoids touching upon the structure 

 and behaviour of the nucleus. He boldly assumes that 

 protoplasm arose by aittogony, i.e., it was " self-begotten ". 



Rationalists are fond of arguing that if there be a 

 God, there must be an antecedent Cause of God ; so we 

 might ask them in return, What is the cause of autogony ? 



What were the first organisms supposed to be like ? 

 Haeckel boldly tells us they were " monera (for instance 

 Chromacea and Bacteria) which consist only of primitive 

 protoplasm and arose by spontaneous generation from 

 inorganic nitrocarbons ". 



Unfortunately he gives us no proof, though he speaks 

 very categorically here. In the first place, he cannot 

 prove that these creatures are not degradations from 

 higher forms rather than primitive types. Knowing, 

 as we do, how degeneration has always accompanied 

 evolution, both in the animal and vegetable world, 

 and considering the millions of years we believe life to 

 have been on this world, it would seem that the pro- 

 bability is in favour of their being degenerations rather 

 than unchanged, original beings. But there is something 

 like proof that such is the case, for Haeckel has overlooked 

 the fact that these creatures cannot live on water, stones 

 and air, but must (as already observed) have organised 

 substances for their nourishment. Thus, some bacteria 

 cause diseases in trees, others, putrefactions, others, again, 

 are pathogenetic in man and animals, etc., but none of 

 them can live and thrive on purely inorganic matter. 



