THE BAFFLING PROBLEM 



results not unlike those which we might^get from an 

 objective study of a book considered as something 

 fabricated — its materials, its construction, its typog- 

 raphy, its binding, the number of its chapters and 

 pages, and so on — without giving any heed to the 

 meaning of the book — its ideas, the human soul 

 and personality that it embodies, the occasion that 

 gave rise to it, indeed all its subjective and imma- 

 terial aspects. All these things, the whole signifi- 

 cance of the volume, would elude scientific analysis. 

 It would seem to be a manufactured article, repre- 

 senting only so much mechanics and chemistry. 

 It is the same with the living body. Unless we per- 

 mit ourselves to go behind the mere facts, the mere 

 mechanics and chemistry of life phenomena, and 

 interpret them in the light of immaterial principles, 

 in short, unless we apply some sort of philosophy to 

 them, the result of our analysis will be but dust in 

 our eyes, and ashes in our mouths. Unless there is 

 something like mind or intelligence pervading na- 

 ture, some creative and transforming impulse that 

 cannot be defined by our mechanical concepts, 

 then, to me, the whole organic world is meaningless. 

 If man is not more than an "accident in the history 

 of the thermic evolution of the globe," or the result 

 of the fortuitous juxtaposition and combination of 

 carbonic acid gas and water and a few other ele- 

 ments, what shall we say? It is at least a bewilder- 

 ing proposition. 



81 



