THE LIVING WORLD. 157 



presently, worked in my mind. I could not be blind 

 to what seemed to me plain and indubitable facts 

 facts which showed that the most characteristic 

 phenomena ascribed to life had their source in 

 chemical activities and mechanical conditions. I 

 could not wish to be blind to them ; for they seemed 

 to ma^o possess an exquisite beauty, and to give 

 an invaluable simplicity and definiteness to our con- 

 ceptions. They seemed right, true, delightful; yet 

 there was in them something that was not right. 

 They made Nature less, or seemed to make it so. 



And this also one could not but feel: How 

 should it be that the investigation of life, above all 

 other studies, should have such an insidious ten- 

 dency to conduct to results which the heart repu- 

 diates ? Why should that study especially, though 

 pursued with the best aims and hopes, lead us, 

 alike unwittingly and unwillingly, to results which 

 seemed, at least to some, hostile to religion, threaten- 

 ing to man's best hopes? Why were our enthu- 

 siastic pursuit of those glimmerings of light which 

 it were false to our Maker not to pursue, our glad 

 grasp of some clear signs of order and necessity in 



