58 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



possess of " primitive organic matter " ? 

 What possible grounds can he have for 

 assertions as to what it must have been, 

 and what it must have done? Surely 

 this is scholasticism with a vengeance. 

 Its words, its assumptions, and its claims 

 of logical necessity are all equally hazy, 

 inconclusive, and absolutely antagonistic 

 to the spirit of true physical science. 



There is a passing sentence in one of 

 Darwin's works 1 which will often recur 

 to the memory of those who have 

 observed it. Speaking of the teleo- 

 logical or theological methods of de- 

 scribing nature, he says that these can 

 be made to explain anything. At first 

 sight this may seem a strange objection 

 to any intelligible method that it is 

 too widely applicable. But Darwin's 

 meaning is in its own sphere as true as 



1 I have mislaid the reference, and quote from 

 memory. 



