226 PROP. G, MACLOSKIE_, D.SC, LL.D., ON 



But though life may have been of supernatural origin, it? 

 subsequent working and progress may be purely mechanical 



Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin of species was an at- 

 tempt assuming some simple vegetable and animal forms as 

 a starting point, to derive from them in a mechanical way all 

 the forms and functions of existing vegetable and animal life. 

 Without going into details on this subject, whilst acknow- 

 ledging both the strength and weakness of Darwin's theory, 

 and that it assumes many factors which are not known to be 

 mechanical, we have to face the fact that it has convinced the 

 biologists, securing the general, though not the universal, 

 assent of the only men who are able to deal with its argu- 

 ments, many of whom would be glad enough to subvert it, 

 if they only knew how. Though not entirely mechanical, it 

 has unquestionably been a great gain for the mechanical con- 

 ception of nature, just because the existence of many 

 thousands of distinct species was formerly the chief argument 

 on the other side. 



Assuming evolution of species to be true, the irreducible 

 cases are, besides the origin of matter and energy, and the 

 general order of the universe, the origin of vegetable and 

 animal life, of sensation and intelligence in animals, and, 

 furthermore, of self-consciousness and the moral faculty in 

 man. We must also provisionally regard the origin of the 

 human body as among the unreduced cases; for although the 

 evolution of man can be deductively obtained from the general 

 theory, and its advocates appeal for confirmation to anatomy,* 

 and although such a doctrine is readily reconcilable with the 

 scripture narrative of man's creation, all attempts to find 

 geological verifications have failed ; so that, if man was 

 evolved, the process must have been very rapid, or must have 

 occurred in some region not yet explored ; and, indeed, it is 

 hardly conceivable that such a being as Haeckel's Pithecan- 

 thropus would be viable in the struggle for existence. The 

 attempt to reduce mind to a mere synonym for the functions 

 of the brain is based mainly on the relation between insanity 

 and cerebral disease ; and is supported in some degree by the 

 localization of functions. But Professor John Fiske's argu- 

 ment appears to us conclusive, that our inability to turn 



* At the same time Topinard shows that it is impossible to derive man 

 from the Quadrumana, and that it will be necessary on the hyjiothesis of 

 his evolution to start from the lower level of the Lemurs. (L'Homme 

 dam La Nature, ch. xxii.) 



