ETNLIKENESS IN ORGANISMS. 165 



liefs, intellectual and ethical and sesthetic, necessi- 

 tated by the original plan of the soul. 



The established definition of life as the power 

 which co-ordinates the movements of germinal mat- 

 ter, proves that there was a plan in the cabin of the 

 Mayflower before any sailors landed. In the original 

 structure of the soul we find the origin of necessary 

 beliefs, and a divine revelation of self-evident truths. 

 Conscience is a primordial power. Our necessary 

 beliefs that there is a distinction between a whole and 

 a part, and right, and wrong motives, would not have 

 been different had our environment been different. 

 The progress of research, in justifying more and more 

 the Aristotelian definition of life, causes at last the 

 icy congealments of the river of philosophical specu- 

 lation to break up. We shall need, twenty-five years 

 hence, I think, no discussion with those who do not 

 recognize in fundamental truths authority entirely 

 beyond experience. "Primordial," as Mill says; 

 "original," as French materialism says; " fundamen- 

 tal," as McCosh says ; " innate," as Spencer says, the 

 primordial, original, fundamental, innate, self-evident 

 truths will be victorious when once the course of 

 scientific discussion has shouldered the heavy masses 

 of its ice into the middle of" the stream. The cor- 

 rect scholarship of the world is a clear river there 

 already; and on it the swift, central, enduring 

 current I advise you to launch your fortunes. 

 [Applause.] 



