58 



Creator, as tke highest conception of paradise?" For 

 views like these, biology, as we have elsewhere ob- 

 served,* is by no means responsible. Science knows 

 nothing of Life save through its manifestations. 

 With the growth of physical organisation it comes, 

 with the decay of organisation it disappears. While 

 life endures, mind is its accompaniment; when life 

 ceases, mental activity comes to a close. Thus far 

 we can trace ; beyond this science is utterly helpless. 

 No observation from the external world — no analogy, 

 however plausible — no analysis, however minute — 

 can solve the problem of an immaterial and immortal 

 existence. They may be received as possible or pro- 

 bable auxiliaries ; but in the main our faith on this 

 poiat must rest, as it has hitherto rested, on an alto- 

 gether different foundation. What we have to deal 

 with in the present iaquiry are zoological relations 

 which admit of probation, and we only complicate the 

 question by the unnecessary introduction of the still 

 more difficult problem of a spiritual community. 



Our first proposition then is, that man in his 

 structural relations belongs to the same zoological 

 plan as the lower animals ; and that, while m this 

 plan there are obviously higher and lower members, 

 adaptive modification of pre-existing structures, rather 



* Past and Present Life of the Globe, pp. 206-7 : Edinburgh, 1861. 



