Scientific Sophisms. 279 



masses, but it gives to limited portions of matter 

 the power of gathering, selectively, other ele- 

 ments proper to them, and binding these 

 elements into their own peculiar and adopted 

 form." But this " power of gathering select- 

 ively," the power that catches out of chaos 

 charcoal, water, lime, or what not, and fastens 

 them down into a given form, the power that is 

 continually creating its own shells of definite 

 shape out of the wreck round it, What is it ? 

 and Whence ? " There is no answer." 



Next comes the gap which separates vegeta- 

 ble from animal life. " These are necessarily 

 the converse of each other, the one deoxidizes 

 and accumulates, the other oxidizes and ex- 

 pends. Only in reproduction or decay does the 

 plant simulate the action of the animal, and the 

 animal never, in its simplest forms, assumes the 

 tunctions of the plant. Those obscure cases in 

 the humbler spheres of animal and vegetable life 

 which have been supposed to show a union of 

 the two kingdoms, disappear on investigation." 

 This is the testimony of Principal Dawson, 

 who adds, " This gap can, I believe, be filled up 

 only by an appeal to our ignorance." l 



1 " Story of the Earth and Man." By J. W. Dawson, 

 LL.D., F.R.S , F.G.S., etc. Hodder and Stoughton, 1873, 

 p. 326. [See p. 298, to which this Reference belongs.] 



