io8 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



existent — "the human mind itself — emotion, intellect, 

 will and all their phenomena ... all our philosoi)hy, all 

 our poetry, all our science, and all our art are potential 

 in the fires of the sun." ^ 



" Having determined the elements of their curve [in 

 allusion to the discoverable path of a comet] in a world 

 of observation and experiment, they [i.e., those who hold 

 the doctrine of evolution] prolong that curve into an 

 antecedent world, and accept as probable the unbroken 

 sequence of development from the nebula to the present 

 time." 2 



The question arises, whether this is a legitimate " scien- 

 tific use of the imagination," or is it not rather an a priori 

 deduction without any efficient data whereon to rest the 

 theory? Let us see, then, what Tyndall could bring 

 forward in the way of concrete phenomena. He proceeds 

 to say : " The matter of the animal body is that of inor- 

 ganic nature. There is no substance in the animal tissues 

 that is not primarily derived from the rocks, the water 

 and the air. Are the forces of organic matter, then, 

 different in kind from those of inorganic matter ? The 

 philosophy of the present day negatives the question. 

 It is the compounding, in the organic world of forces 

 belonging equally to the inorganic, that constitutes the 

 mystery and the miracle of vitality. Every portion of 

 every animal body may be reduced to purely inorganic 

 matter. A perfect reversal of this process of reduction 

 would carry us from the inorganic to the organic ; and 

 such a reversal is at least conceivable " [?]."' 



In the present state of our knowledge I, for one, flatly 

 deny that a living organism can be conceived as arising 

 out of its inorganic constituents, without the aid of Life ; 



' Scientific use of the Imagination, p. 453. 



'^ Ibid., p. 456. ^ Vitality, p. 463. 



