SCIENTIFIC FAITH ONCE MORE 



chemical origin of life itself. He found no more 

 place for miracle at the beginning than at the end of 

 evolution, yet he repudiated materialism as emphat- 

 ically as he rejected what he calls spiritualism, — 

 declaring that the latter was only the former turned 

 bottom-side up. While recognizing that "the logical 

 methods of physical science are of universal applica- 

 bility," he saw clearly enough that many subjects 

 of thought and emotion — doubtless he would say, 

 many forms of truth — lie entirely outside the prov- 

 ince of physical science. He recognized three forms 

 of reality in the universe, — matter, energy, and 

 consciousness, — and that the last-named was no 

 conceivable modification of either of the others. 

 Whether he assigned to consciousness the same cos- 

 mic rank as to matter and energy, does not appear. 

 It is quite certain that matter and energy existed 

 before consciousness appeared, and will continue to 

 exist after it disappears. But, in making this state- 

 ment, are we projecting our consciousness into the 

 past, and into the future? 



I note one weakness in Huxley's faith: it seems to 

 have balked at accepting the reality of things it 

 could not conceive of. While looking upon the the- 

 ory of the atomic constitution of matter as a valua- 

 ble working hypothesis, it balked at the objective 

 existence of the atom, — a point of matter which 

 occupied space and had form and weight, and yet 

 was indivisible. This was beyond his power of 



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