THE ELEMENTS AND THEIR COMBINING WEIGHTS 



195 



Those who advocate the doctrine that there is only one kind of matter in the imi verse, and one kind of force, 

 assign to plants and animals the power of modifying and adapting themselves indefinitely (which really means 

 fashioning and in a manner creating themselves) ; the modifications and adaptations extending over milhons of 

 years — periods utterly incomprehensible to even the ablest mathematicians. 



Plants and animals are said to select and employ those powers, substances, properties, and qualities in them- 

 selves which make for advance and a steady ascent towards perfection, in the absence of a First Cause and design. 

 The power of natural selection is claimed for the simplest and most rudimentary plants and animals, from the monad 

 to the man. Similar powers are claimed for molecules and cells in reproduction and development. Latterly, like 

 claims have been made for inorganic atoms, nebulae, and all the celestial bodies wheeling in space. In this con- 

 nection it should be stated that selection implies — nay more, involves — intelligence, for it necessitates the capacity 

 to discriminate, assort, separate, adopt, reject, &c. 



Intelligence is a sine qua non, and the choice hes between intelligence in the atom, the molecule, the speck of 

 protoplasm, the cell, or the tissue, and the Creator Who made all and Who modifies, controls, and adapts all for 

 specific purposes. In order to give coherence to the extraordinary theories propounded by certain investigators 

 as to the omnipotence of matter and force, and the complete absence of a First Cause and of life, the atoms are said 

 to exert likes and dislikes, and to possess what is virtually a mind, and an anima or soul. Intelligence of a kind 



