Spiritual Evolution of Society 197 



never succeeded in reconstructing anything but the 

 waste products of vital activity." Man has never been 

 able to produce synthetically the diamond crystal, 

 although he can make something exactly similar in 

 chemical composition ; so with Life ; he may combine 

 carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen in any pro- 

 portion he chooses, and expose the compound to radio- 

 active or any other rays, and the result points to only 

 one conclusion — the law of Pasteur — " omne vivum 

 ex vivo " — no life without pre-existing life. Therefore 

 science must account for its origin on the earth if we 

 are still asked to accept the Darwinian hypothesis, for 

 the reason that if life cannot be originated by artificial 

 means, and has never been demonstrated by natural 

 means, if Pasteur's law is true, and we know it is, then, 

 by a purely logical process — by pure reason — we must 

 postulate an Omnipotent Power, who created Life in 

 the form of the unicellular protoplasmic unit, endowed 

 with " the primitive impulse of life," and so designed 

 as to be able to perpetuate its own form, and at the 

 same time to undergo evolution, resulting in the pro- 

 duction of a graduated scale of beings represented by 

 the multitudinous forms of plant and animal life which 

 have existed and do exist upon the earth, their struc- 

 ture and form varying according to the environment in 

 which they find themselves. Bergson has done a great 

 deal to widen our view, and he effectually demolishes 

 the mechanistic argument, but he will never be believed 

 until he adopts the logical outcome of his own position 

 — the argument of design on the part of the Eternal, 

 Omnipotent Power, and the teleological view of the 

 Universe, which means an evolutionary plan pointing 

 to the Final Goal. 



" I smiled to think God's greatness 

 Flowed around our incompleteness, 

 Round our restlessness, His rest." 



