214 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



Thus by means of philosophy we can easily explain 

 the idea of creation, in fact we can explain and 

 understand it far more easily than that of the 

 eternity of matter. Of this a scientist can only 

 say : ' I do not know whether it ever had a 

 beginning ; I do not know whether it ever ceases 

 to exist, because, as far as my scientific experience 

 goes, there is no origin and no destruction of matter.' 

 This is quite right ; but if the scientist considers 

 the question philosophically, he must, nevertheless, 

 say : ' The ground of the eternity of matter, of its 

 existence without any beginning, is not inherent 

 in the conception of matter. In fact, these two 

 conceptions, ' matter ' and c eternity,' are contra- 

 dictory. Only a being not subject to change, and 

 having in itself the reason of its existence, can be 

 eternal. This is inconceivable in the case of matter, 

 because it is imperfect and subject to change. 

 Therefore we are forced to explain the origin of 

 matter by means of creation and this is where our 

 philosophical ideas begin.' 



Professor Plate came forward, moreover, as a 

 champion of the hypothesis of spontaneous genera- 

 tion. He almost seemed to believe that I had said 

 the first living creatures were produced by God by 



not something unnecessary or contingent, for it is identical with God's 

 being, because this is absolutely simple, and therefore in it there is no dis- 

 tinction between existence and activity, as there is in the exercise of the 

 human will. The act of creation was free on God's part, because the world 

 is not a possession necessary to God, and consequently its existence is not 

 and cannot be willed by God as a necessity. 



