308 rKOFESSOR DUNS, D.D., P.R.S.E., KTC, ON 



particles. It may please eagv3r, " new biologists " to point 

 Avitb a smile to mineral composition and ask, "Have you not 

 here an agent of increase if not identical at least very like 

 Avhat you call living growth " ? Intelligent common sense 

 jnay be safely left to ask in return, " How do you account for 

 the existence of the agent of increase as tlic explanation of 

 growth in organised bodies, and of bulk in unorganised 

 bodies ? " It is easy to say, " We trace both to the natural pro- 

 perties of things." "The organic and the inorganic are the 

 outcome of the inherent properties — the laws of their beings 

 in short. Organisation then implies the acti<:)n of law. But 

 does not law, both in it and in its continuance imply person- 

 ality? Mechanism the fruit of unguided lu^tural propertie.^ 

 is absurd. This sort of science sheds no light on "being" 

 Avhether we call it living or dead, organic or inorganic. 

 There is another question which the mechanical "natural 

 })roperties of things — theorists " cannot away Avath. namely, 

 «»/;('//<;'6' the properties which give organisms? Such theoris- 

 ing is not science, because science is truth, it is the truth of 

 things. It refuses no student the liberty of research, but it 

 dreads guess-work. Thus it isliteraWj onind-fidl. "Science," 

 says Dr. L. A. DorJier, "may go astray and so do harm. 

 But if it could not do this neither could it be of any real 

 service ; it would not be free, and Avould consequently be 

 Tinable to be truly productive, while it would fail to make a 

 deep impression, or awaken any confidence since it would 

 merely work, as it Avere, to order." True, that is truth 

 seeking, workers rejoice in liberty of research, but keep clear 

 of speculative licence. They have no sympathy Avith Avorkers 

 who find organisation to be the mere outcome of qualities- 

 characteristic of all matter — men in many cases Ave might 

 say :— 



" Tliii'.stiiig for Tnitli, but wretclu'iUy in Error." 



3. Classification. When in Dresden at the opening of the 

 Frau'-.o-Gcrman AVar, and chancing to pass across the 

 juagnificent bridge Avhich unites the tAVo parts of the city — 

 Altstadt and Neustadt — I noticed a large building, (.'vidcntly 

 run up in haste, near the bank of the P]lbe. ThitliL'r Avaggons 

 heavily laden Avith Avar materials of different sorts — sAvords, 

 bayonets, rifles, horse-trappings, and the like — found tlu'ir 

 Avay. These as they arrived Avere passed into the building 

 Avithout selection and regard for ordrr. But from another 

 part of the same structure, and at the other side, Avaggous 



