268 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



How can we explain the inheritance of these senti- 

 ments which are a part of our nature? How have 

 they originated and how have they been transmitted 

 from age to age? How are mental characteristics 

 transmitted from parents to offspring? Have the 

 traits of father and mother combined been handed 

 down through long ages by means of the few mole- 

 cules of matter that constitute the beginning of each 

 material organism? And what theory can satisfactor- 

 ily explain the formation of the organic germs of 

 living beings? 



I need not say that heredity is one of the profound- 

 est mysteries of nature. To explain it baffles the 

 powers of the imagination. While we may look upon 

 it as a natural process, yet in the deepest and truest 

 sense I regard it as a constantly recurring exhibition 

 of the Divine power. No miracle can be more won- 

 derful nor incomprehensible than the results of 

 heredity. 



Nature is crowded with mysteries. Life is a mys- 

 tery. We know that we live, but how or why we 

 know not. That we may live in the future may as 

 well be a part of the great plan as that we live now. 

 Unless it can be shown that mind is necessarily de- 

 pendent for its existence on organic matter, a thing 

 which it is impossible to prove, then it may be possi- 

 ble for mind to exist after the body perishes. 



A future life seems necessary in order that the 

 soul may make the endless progress of which it is 

 capable. The beast eats and lies down perfectly sat- 

 isfied. It soon makes the limited progress of which 

 it is capable. But the inquisitive mind of man is 

 never satisfied. It searches the universe in quest of 

 truth, and is ever anxious to enlarge its store of 

 knowledge. 



It would seem probable that future opportunity 



