44 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



to rest in uncertainty on a matter involving such important 

 consequences. 



Science acknowledges the religious principle in man, and it 

 ever has and ever will demand a satisfactory explanation; and if 

 science fails us here and refuses its assistance, by the very con- 

 stitution of our being we are compelled to look elsewhere for 

 what will not. 



When Darwin was pointing out to the Duke of Argyll some 

 striking adaptations of parts to their uses, the Duke remarked that 

 " it seemed impossible to look at them without seeing that they are 

 the expression of mind." Darwin said : " That often comes over me 

 with overwhelming force, but it passes away again." In that dis- 

 closure made by this eminent naturalist, we get a view of the natural 

 operation of the human mind, in demanding an efficient cause to 

 account for visible phenomena, which is one of the fundamental 

 principles of modern science : that everything in nature has a cause, 

 which, if known, would account for its existence. In this, then, I 

 get a clue how to proceed with my subject. Leaving the scientific 

 method, which will not here apply, I follow the scientific principle, 

 which is of universal application, and so continue it. 



You remember the expression used by Prof. Tyndall m his 

 famous Belfast speech : " I have traced life to the utmost limits of 

 the knowable, and looked beyond, and there w^s nothing." If he 

 had said that he saw nothing, he would have been as scientifically 

 correct "as he was when he said, " of the origin of life, we know 

 nothing." And yet science has taken many steps in advance of the 

 position occupied by Prof. Tyndall when he used that expression, 

 but is just as far from discovering the origin of life as ever. Now, this 

 very subject has been under consideration for thousands of years, 

 and many of the most powerful intellects of the race have been en- 

 gaged in the effort to try to discover the cause of the visible phen- 

 omena of the universe, without a shadow of success, for, in Carlyhan 

 phraseology, "the farthing rushlight of the most brilliant human intel- 

 lect will not illuminate to the depth of one-half inch that profound 

 darkness which lies beyond." 



Are we then left to the endless perplexity and vague uncertainty 

 arising from the utter inability of the human mind to penetrate the 

 invisible, and settle a doubt which it can neither solve nor let alone ? 

 There is an ancient document that professes to solve the mystery in 



