6 . The Cause of Life and Motion 



them of His existence. There are others who 

 require, or at all events, affect to require a posi- 

 tive demonstration of the fact. Of this latter 

 class, there are many made-to-order scientists, 

 men who are only capable of deriving knowledge 

 from what they find in their bookcases. These, 

 to a large extent, are the men who dignify scien- 

 tic societies with their membership, and who are 

 only useful as encyclopedical expounders. Besides 

 these ready-made scientists, there are those who be- 

 come dissatisfied with the teachings and disgusted 

 with the actions of religionists and they turn from 

 their God, something in the same spirit that a 

 little boy turns from his food when offended by 

 his father. 



Another cause of atheism is derived from the 

 material teachings of scientists, and as they pro- 

 fess to be exact in their doctrines, their influence 

 over those incapable of thinking for themselves, 

 becomes of great potency. 



It is with the material doctrines of science that 

 an issue will be taken in this treatise, not that it 

 is believed that anything may exist without sub- 

 stance, but that as the highest principle in crea- 

 tion is of a substance inconceivably fine and ab- 

 solutely indestructible and indivisable, and as such 

 a principle can hardly be conceived by man, it 

 can only be dealt with by considering it aparr^ 

 from matter. As an explicit means of classifica 



