94 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES OX 



also occurred from the nebulous state of matter to the organised 

 heavens tilled Avith moving bodies. They, however, refuse to admit 

 that any such transition has occurred between the inauimate and 

 the animate bodies. This is not only unphilosophical, but simply 

 unbelievable. If the theory of Evolution is worth anything, it 

 must be capable somehow of accounting for the passage of what 

 we call non-living to the living state. All that can be said is that 

 hitherto no fact has been discovered that will help us to bridge 

 that gap. But bridged it must be, if the conception of Evolution, 

 as a method of Creation, is to stand. 



We are pleased first to classify the universe into non-living and 

 living. Then we say that these two divisions are quite distinct, 

 because one is non-living and the other is living ! 



What, if what we call inanimate nature is also living ! Is it 

 necessary that our conception of life should be the right one ? 

 Far from it I should say, considering the multitude of blundering 

 conceptions that man's mental history has gone through. What, 

 if the whole universe be quivering with life proceeding from those 

 universal agents (we call them forces) which are convertible one 

 into the other, and of which perhaps electricity is the most mobile 

 and most universally present. 



However all this may be, there are no facts known which 

 brido-e the two evolutions, and therefore we have to wait till that 

 bridge is completed, not only mentally, but de facto. 



It would appear erroneous to suppose that evolution means 

 only change with progress, that is, an ever-increasing complexity. 

 Evolution mav mean this, but it may also mean retrogression, 

 that is, a reduction from a more complex to a less complex form. 

 A better definition of evolution might perhaps be— a tendency to 

 occupy every available place on land and in water, in every 

 possible way. 



To effect such an occupation, infinite variation is needed, 

 taking into consideration all the surroundings of each place, in 

 order that this tendency may become actual fitness to every place. 



This fitness then is brought about, or "tailored" by a struggle 

 for life, which naturally would lead to the selection of the most fit 

 for any particular place. 



As every spore, seed, or bud is a piece of some previous body, 

 which may have occupied a different sphere, it is evident that these 

 offsets need ho plastic, that is, they require to possess a power of 



