THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 45 



less millions of beings that every hour 

 come into existence ? 



Judging by our experience of force in 

 inanimate nature, a definite quantity of 

 Specific life-force cannot, within itself, mul- 

 tiply or increase, and if Specific life -force 

 comes from the progenitors, the first parents 

 must have been endowed, not only with a 

 sufficiency of vitality for themselves, but also 

 for all their descendants. 



But this would be at variance with 

 Nature's parsimony in the use of means. 



Again, if the Specific life - force of the 

 individual is only sufficient for its own 

 existence, whence comes the Specific life- 

 force of its successor ? 



We know nothing of the forces that 

 cause conception, or bring the embryo from 

 the germ-cell, or develop the mature animal 

 from the foetus. 



The ignorance of the untutored savage 

 in a great factory, where machines, driven 

 by invisible electric energy, automatically 

 produce cunning designs, is not more pro- 

 found than that of the most highly gifted 

 of our race in Nature's workshop. 



But may not the great factory with its 

 invisible motive force suggest, that the 

 world of life is continuously sustained and 



