132 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



they do such a theory as "anthropomorphic," 

 but in condemning it they are setting up a man 

 of straw. That is not our view. Our view is 

 that the idea of the earth and of living things 

 existed from all eternity in the mind of its 

 Creator; that things came to be as and when 

 they were intended to be; that just as the 

 clock strikes twelve when the clockmaker in- 

 tended it to, though it can scarcely be said that 

 he made it strike at the moment at which its 

 chime was actually heard, so at the time when 

 life was to appear, it did appear and appeared 

 by means of whatever mechanism it was in- 

 tended that it should appear by. 



The reply of some will be that an assumption 

 is being made here. Is it as unlikely an 

 assumption if for a moment we pass the word 

 as the vaseline- jelly assumption minus any 

 further cause? I confess that on the most 

 rationalistic grounds I do not think so, but 

 there is more to be said, and without discus- 

 sing the question of the existence of God which 

 is dealt with in many works of much greater 

 erudition than this and cannot be detailed here. 

 But we may just point attention to St Thomas' 

 " Quinque viae," or five roads to the proof in 

 Quinque question. They are all of them important and 

 as we think unanswerable, but the fifth is 

 highly germane to our purpose and we may 



