REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF LIFE. 26S 



tell on the organism, and after a struggle of longer or shorter 

 duration it succumbs to death, and its substance returns into 

 inorganic nature, a law from which even the longer life of tlie 

 species does not seem to exempt it. All this is so plain and 

 manifest that it is extraordinary that evolutionists will con- 

 tmue to use such partial and imperfect arguments. Another 

 example may be taken from that application of the doctrine 

 of natural selection to explain the introduction of species in 

 geological time which is so elaborately discussed by Sir C. 

 Lyell in the last edition of his rrimiples of Geology. The 

 great geologist evidently leans strongly to the theory, and 

 claims for it the "highest degree of probability," yet he per- 

 ceives that there is a serious gap in it ; since no modern fact 

 has ever proved the origin of a new species by modification. 

 Such a gap, if it existed in those grand analogies by which 

 we explain geological formations through modern causes, would 

 be admitted to be fatal. 



A third illustration of the partial character of these hypo- 

 theses may be taken from the use made of the theory deduced 

 from modern physical discoveries, that life must be merely a 

 product of the continuous operation of physical laws. The 

 assumption, for it is nothing more, that the phenomena of life 

 are produced merely by some arrangement of physical forces, 

 even if it be admitted to be true, gives only a partial explana- 

 tion of the possible origin of life. It does not account for the 

 fact that life as a force or combination of forces is set in 

 antagonism to all other forces. It does not account for the 

 marvellous connection of life with organisation. It does not 

 account for the determination and arrangement of forces im- 

 plied in life. A very simple illustration may make this plain. 

 If the problem to be solved were the origin of the mariner's 

 compass, one might assert that it is wholly a physical arrange- 

 ment both as to matter and force. Another might assert that 

 it involves mind and intelligence in addition. In some sense 

 both would be right. The properties of magnetic force and of 



