392 



THE WORLD OF LIFE 



CHAP. 



A Suggestion as to the Origin of Life 



As it may be expected that I should state what is my own 

 conception of the power which I claim to be proved to exist, 

 and to be the fundamental cause of the life-world as well as 

 of the material universe, I will here make a few suggestions 

 as to what seems to me to be the least improbable, the 

 least difficult, of all attempts to deal with what Herbert 

 Spencer held to be " unknowable," but the non-existence of 

 which he held to be unthinkable. In the Chapter on 

 Religion, in Darwin's Life and Letters, he also seems to 

 have rested in the one conclusion, that the universe could 

 not have existed without an intelligent cause, but that any 

 adequate conception of the nature of that cause was beyond 

 the powers of the human mind to form. With these views 

 I am in complete sympathy ; but I yet think that we can 

 form some conceptions of the powers at work in nature which 

 help us to overcome the insuperable difficulty as to the nature 

 of the infinite and absolute creator, not only of our world 

 and our universe, but of all that exists or can exist in infinite 

 space. Here, as everywhere in science, we must not attempt 

 to deal with the ultimate problem without studying or com- 

 prehending the steps by which it may be approached. 



I venture to hope that in the present volume, and 

 especially in the last six chapters, I have satisfied most of 

 my readers that the vast life-world, with its myriad forms, 

 each one originating in a single cell, yet growing, by cell- 

 division, into such marvels of variety, of use, and of beauty, 

 does absolutely require some non- mechanical mind and 

 power as its efficient cause. To such only my further 

 argument will be directed. 



My first point is, that the organising mind which actually 

 carries out the development of the life-world need not be 

 infinite in any of its attributes — need not be what is usually 

 meant by the terms God or Deity. The main cause of 

 the antagonism between religion and science seems to me 

 to be the assumption by both that there are no existences 

 capable of taking part in the work of creation other than 

 blind forces on the one hand, and the infinite, eternal, omni- 

 potent God on the other. The apparently gratuitous creation 



