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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1125 



telligence) to produce the mind of a person capa- 

 ble of judging mechanism, it is clear that mechan- 

 ism has not been the only principle at work in 

 the evolutionary process. 



If Dr. Putnam's contention is sound, it 

 becomes possible to understand the point of 

 view of the modern theologian when he 

 says: 



Never yet has something come out of nothing. 

 Never yet has order arisen out of confusion or light 

 out of darkness as a result of anything other than 

 personality. Force, law, life and achievement 

 carry the mind irresistibly to the supreme will, to 

 the supreme life, to the personality of God. A 

 universe teeming with mind, fired within and 

 stamped without with intelligence is the attesta- 

 tion of the living God. God is the meaning of the 

 universe (Gordon, '10). 



The acceptance of the idealistic postulate 

 and of the point of view of the neo-vitalist 

 make it possible to understand Dr. Gordon 

 when he says further : 



Behind all human achievement we see the crea- 

 tive spirit at work. Back of all achievement in 

 literature we see the personality of Homer and 

 .ZEschylus, Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare. Be- 

 hind the achievements of the race in art we see 

 the personality of Praxiteles, Eaphael and Michael 

 Angelo. For the entire high achievement of the 

 race there is no explanation but the creative spirit 

 of human personality. In our contemplation of 

 nature and in our attempt to comprehend it we 

 need to carry with us the sense of creation. The 

 universe is the supreme achievement. Behind 

 this achievement is the infinite soul and as our 

 human world is a living and expanding achieve- 

 ment, we must conclude that within it is the crea- 

 tive spirit of God. 



That scientific men occasionally catch a 

 glimpse of the theological viewpoint seems 

 borne out by the following quotations : 



There is a wider teleology which is not touched 

 by the doctrine of evolution, but is actually based 

 upon the fundamental proposition of evolution 

 (Huxley). 



We are beginning to see the ascent of the Ideal 

 of evolution. Thus biological science must indeed 

 become the handmaid of religion (Thomson and 

 Geddes) . 



Supposing that in youth we had been impreg- 



nated with the notion of the poet Goethe, instead 

 of the notion of the poet Young, looking at mat- 

 ter not as brute matter, but as the living gar- 

 ment of God, is it not probable that our repug- 

 nance to the idea of the primeval union between 

 spirit and matter might be considerably abated* 

 (Tyndall). 



I see everywhere the inevitable expression of 

 the Infinite in the world (Louis Pasteur). 



In whatever direction we pursue our researches, 

 whether in time or space, we discover everywhere 

 the clear proofs of a Creative Intelligence (Sir 

 Charles Lyell). 



We are unmistakably shown through nature that 

 she depends upon one ever-acting Creator and 

 Buler (Lord Kelvin). 



I can not imagine the possibility of any one 

 with ordinary intelligence entertaining the least 

 doubt of the existence of a God (William Crookes). 



Matter and energy have an original property, as- 

 suredly not by chance, which organizes the uni- 

 verse in space and time. ... If life has originated 

 by an evolutionary process from dead matter, that 

 is surely the crowning and most wonderful in- 

 stance of teleology in the universe (L. J. Hender- 

 son). 



If then for the reasons advanced we are 

 to accept the idealistic postulate as the 

 basis of our discussion of individuality, 

 what will be the effect upon the mechanistic 

 interpretation ? How wide is the sphere of 

 the mechanist? Just as wide as he used 

 to think before he converted a method of 

 investigation into a complete philosophy 

 and interpretation of life. Most of our 

 lives are mechanistic as we have always be- 

 lieved them to be. A large part of that 

 which is not mechanistic is deterministic. 

 For we are bound by heredity, hormones 

 and habit. 



Such limitation — such determinism — is 

 the essential condition, as Palmer ('11) has 

 well said, of that little measure of vitalistic 

 freedom which we actually enjoy. The 

 laws of determinism rule our lives more 

 than the vitalist has been willing to believe. 

 But we are free to choose between two alter- 

 native lines of necessity and to that extent 

 at least our fates are in our own hands. 



