62 A Century of Science 



interpretation, very well. I neither quarrel with 

 him nor seek to convert him ; but I do not agree 

 with him. I do not pretend that my opinion on 

 these matters is susceptible of scientific demonstra- 

 tion. Neither is his. I say, then, that his fifth 

 thesis has no business in a series of scientific gen- 

 eralizations about the doctrine of evolution. 



Far beyond the limits of what scientific methods, 

 based upon our brief terrestrial experience, can de- 

 monstrate, there lies on every side a region with 

 regard to which Science can only suggest questions. 

 As Goethe so profoundly says : - 



" Willst du ins Unendliche streiten, 



Geh' nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten." 1 



It is of surpassing interest that the particular gen- 

 eralization which has been extended into a univer- 

 sal formula of evolution should have been the 

 generalization of the development of an ovum. 

 In enlarging the sphere of life in such wise as to 

 make the whole universe seem actuated by a single 

 principle of life, we are introduced to regions of 

 sublime speculation. The doctrine of evolution, 

 which affects our thought about all things, brings 

 before us with vividness the conception of an ever 

 present God, not an absentee God who once 



1 " If thou wouldst press into the infinite, go but to all parts 

 of the finite." 



