8 EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION LECT. 



contradiction with it. As to the feasibility of a 

 creation after this mode, we can entertain no doubt. 

 Miraculous and incomprehensible is this theory : but 

 all theories which pretend to explain the beginnings 

 are so ; they cannot avoid recurring to the hypothesis, 

 either of the spontaneous generation of matter, energy, 

 and life of the whole intricate and complex system 

 of things, or of the creation of all this by some 

 mighty being, the watchmaker of Paley's well-known 

 argument. But who made the watchmaker ? it 

 is naturally asked. To the last question neither you 

 nor I are prepared to answer, and as none can answer 

 it, many come to the conclusion that the question is 

 absurd and must be dismissed as untenable. We 

 must confess that this question is above our reason. 

 But what of the first alternative ? Can any one of us 

 show matter, life, or energy spontaneously generated 

 out of nothing ? No ! and all the progress of physics 

 and chemistry goes to show how numerous are the 

 transformations of energy and matter, and to confirm 

 steadily the axiom ex niJiilo nihil. If we are asked 

 to believe in spontaneous creation of life, matter, or 

 energy, we merely answer that this belief goes against 

 our reason, because we are asked to believe in things 

 which are contrary to all our experience. 1 And 



1 This does not prevent Basile Conta, in his interesting Origine dcs 

 Espcccs (Paris, Alcan, 1888), from supposing that spontaneous genera- 



