210 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



on matter, without matter reacting upon something, 

 then of course we go beyond the limits of a 

 dynamical theory. There is no reason to suppose, 

 however, that any such phenomenon occurs and we 

 should prefer, in fact we see no reason for refus- 

 ing to do so, to regard the so-called spiritual world 

 as a part of the dynamical system of the Universe. 

 Sir Oliver Lodge would no doubt give his assent to 

 this, and in that spiritual world we should expect 

 to find new forms, new manifestations of energy. 



We do not think that Haeckel, on the 

 other hand, if cross-examined, would limit his 

 monistic views to matter of the kind the physi- 

 cist and chemist till recently understood by that 

 word, but rather, we feel confident, that he 

 would be willing to extend his views, not merely 

 to the material atoms and molecules, but to the 

 immaterial, ultra-material, ethereal, spiritual or 

 anything else we may wish to call it, so long as 

 the connections between these things were admitted 

 throughout to rest upon a dynamical foundation. 

 By that we mean that they follow the relation 

 of cause and efi'ect, the cause being the invariable 

 and unconditional antecedent of the efi'ect, so that 

 relations exist which admit of being ultimately 

 expressed by means of equations of motion. To 

 go beyond that seems to us to be equivalent to 

 replacing the scientific aspect of the Universe by 

 something mystical and unintelligible, not to say 

 unknowable. 



It must be admitted, however, that this craving 



