Sophisms. 93 



like Mr. Darwin, he merely " conceives " a cer- 

 tain ideal origin of life. His Monera, at first 

 " conceivable " only, and then " conceived," 

 " acquired tendencies." But how did they 

 acquire them? And how does he know that 

 they were acquired ? The only answer is, that 

 they must have acquired them or they could 

 never have possessed them and they must 

 have possessed them, or they could not have 

 become animal Monera ; and they must have 

 become animal Monera, for without them 

 the theory breaks down, and the existence of 

 the animal world could be accounted for 

 only by admitting the doctrine of a special 

 creation. To meet the exigencies of the 

 theory therefore, these "simple particles," so 

 inexplicably "originated," and with "ten- 

 dencies " so inexplicably " acquired," at last, and 

 in some equally inexplicable manner, " became 

 animal Monera" 



"At last !" By no means : this is but another 

 beginning. Each tier of the hypothesis is 

 constructed only by a recurrence of the same 

 dogmatic assumptions. "Some of the animal 

 Monera acquired a nucleus, and became amoeba- 

 like creatures." "Great ingenuity?" Un- 

 doubtedly : whatever the theory requires is 

 forthcoming on paper. The transformations 



