I90 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



to bits. But it is possible that mind may be 

 associated with some types that will persist beyond 

 the dissolution of our mortal frame. It may be 

 that that unity of consciousness has its physical 

 analogue in some phenomenon in the aether which 

 can no more be created than it can be destroyed, 

 like a vortex ring or filament in a frictionless and 

 perfect fluid, which the aether is supposed to be. 

 These points are mentioned merely to remind our- 

 selves that our descent from protoplasm and its 

 descent from simpler matter need raise no fears as 

 to our future state. 



For our own part, although such coherency on 

 the part of Nature has, as we think, been the 

 result of her natural course, there does not ap- 

 pear to be anything in this conception, strictly 

 speaking, antagonistic either to theism in its highest 

 sense. Why should we not regard the play of 

 physical forces as the mode of action of the 

 Divine Mind ? The purely scientific aspect of 

 things admits of being interpreted in either way. 

 And it is beyond the purely scientific that we 

 must look for the solution of this question. This 

 remark is made to clear the atmosphere of fears 

 or misapprehensions that the strictly dynamical 

 and consistent view of things involves any real 

 antagonism to the theistic view of Nature. 



