SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY 27 



same elements ; their differences arise solely from 

 the different chemical combination of these elements, 

 a combination so peculiar and complex that Science 

 has not yet been able to reproduce it in her labora- 

 tory. But the fact that spontaneous generation has 

 not yet taken place under the highly artificial con- 

 ditions imposed by experimental chemistry proves 

 ■what ? Proves only that it has not yet taken place, 

 that science with its limited means and brief space 

 of time has not yet accomplished that which must 

 have occurred under vastly different conditions in 

 the abysm of geological time, and in the depths of 

 the primordial seas. Science starts with matter and 

 with force ; back of these it does not go ; more than 

 these it does not require. To account for them, or 

 to seek to account for them, is unscientific, for the 

 simple reason that no such accounting can be veri- 

 fied. Out of the potencies of matter itself science 

 traces the evolution of the whole order of visible 

 things. Theology may step in and assume to know 

 all that science leaves unsaid, but in doing so let 

 it not assume to speak with the consent and the 

 authority of its great rival. 



In the light of the most advanced biological sci- 

 ence, organic and inorganic appear but relative terms, 

 like heat and cold. There are all degrees of heat, 

 and there are probably all degrees of life. There are 

 probably degrees of life too low ia the scale for our 

 discernment, just as there is heat where our senses 

 report only cold. If there are degrees of conscious- 

 ness, why may there not be degrees of life ? The 



