DISCUSSION 207 



mena which we can imagine. I do not believe 

 that such a line of argument suffices to render 

 us able to dispense with God. 



Dr. Thesing proceeded to say that Father Was- 

 mann adhered to the Christian theory, according 

 to which God was an absolutely perfect being. 

 Thus from absolute perfection was derived the 

 world, which was imperfect. He maintained this 

 to be a contradiction very hard to comprehend. 



If we, like the Monists, regard the finite as 

 identical with what is divine and infinite, we 

 certainly are involved in a totally inextricable 

 difficulty ; but there is no contradiction in the 

 theistic theory, which represents the finite as 

 proceeding by way of creation out of the 

 abundance of the infinite. 



Dr. Thesing referred next to spontaneous genera- 

 tion. He said that Father Wasmann maintained 

 rightly the impossibility of proving a spontaneous 

 generation. We might show it to be probable that 

 a living being arose out of what was inorganic, but 

 we could not prove it. Was it, however, a necessary 

 consequence that we must assume the existence of 

 something apart from matter, and a divine creation ? 

 Dr. Thesing did not think so. He said there were 

 many other imaginary things which had just as 

 much justification. While stating expressly that 

 this was not his own opinion, but only an objection 



