THE SPECIAL -CREATION-HYPOTHESIS. 337 



effected ? Of the myriad atoms going to the composition of 

 the new organism, all of them previously dispersed through 

 the neighbouring air and earth, does each, suddenly dis- 

 engaging itself from its combinations, rush to meet the rest, 

 unite with them into the appropriate chemical compounds, 

 and then fall with certain others into its appointed place in 

 the aggregate of complex tissues and organs ? Surely thus 

 to assume a myriad supernatural impulses, differing in their 

 directions and amounts, given to as many different atoms, is a 

 multiplication of mysteries rather than the solution of a 

 mystery. For every one of these impulses, not being the 

 result of a force locally existing in some other form, implies 

 the creation of force ; and the creation of force is just as 

 inconceivable as the creation of matter. And thus is it with 

 all attempted ways of representing the process. The old 

 Hebrew idea that God takes clay and moulds a new creature, 

 as a potter might mould a vessel, is probably too grossly an- 

 thropomorphic to be accepted by any modern defender of the 

 special- creation doctrine. But having abandoned this crude 

 belief, what belief is he prepared to substitute ? If a new 

 organism is not thus produced, then in what way is a new 

 organism produced ? or rather — in what way can a new 

 organism be conceived to be produced ? "We will not ask for 

 the ascertained mode, but will be content with a mode 

 that can be consistently imagined. "No such mode, however, 

 is assignable. Those who entertain the proposition that each 

 kind of organism results from a divine interposition, do so 

 because they refrain from translating words into thoughts. 

 The case is one of those where men do not really believe, but 

 rather believe they believe. For belief, properly so called, 

 implies a mental representation of the thing believed ; and 

 no such mental representation is here possible. 



§ 113. If we imagine mankind to be contemplated by 

 some creature as short-lived as an ephemeron, but possessing 

 intelligence like our own — if we imagine such a being study- 



