SCIENCE 



§ 



As the human mind advanced in the study of 

 natural causes, or in scientific knowledge, the time 

 was bound to come when it would ask for a scien- 

 tific explanation of life itself. The old teleological 

 conceptions could no longer satisfy it. It must find 

 the reason of things in the things themselves. Its 

 science reveals to it worlds within worlds, deep 

 beneath deep, at the same time: that it shows the 

 universe to be one, rounded and complete in itself, 

 and that there is nothing more potent or mysterious 

 than the common elements and forces that are 

 involved in our daily lives. 



Life is a physical phenomenon; is it therefore 

 capable of a physical explanation? The only expla- 

 nation science can give must be a physico-chemi- 

 cal one; it would be transcending its own sphere to 

 give any other. The only explanation it can give of 



death must be a physico-chemical one. For any 



i 



other explanation of life or death we must appeal 

 to our philosophy or to our religion, which is our 

 philosophy suffused with personal emotion. Science 

 must and does seek objective proof; philosophy and 

 religion seek the approbation of the reason and the 

 intuitions. The question is, have either of the latter 

 authority over science on such ,a question as the 

 nature and origin of life? Many men of science say 

 "No" with emphasis. Long study of the chemis- 

 try and mechanism of life convinces such men 

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