MYSTERY OF THE CELL 381 



long ages before the first rudiment of life appeared npon the 

 earth, long before all the suns we see had l>eeonie suns, the in- 

 finite development had been at work and must liavc ])r(>diic(Ml 

 gods of infinite degrees of powei-, any one of whom would pre- 

 sumably be quite capable of starting such a solar system as 

 ours, or one immensely larger and better, and of so determin- 

 ing the material constitution of an " earth " as to initiate and 

 guide a course of development which would have resulted in 

 a far higher being than man. Once assume a mind-developing 

 power from all eternity, and it must, noiu, and at all earlier 

 periods of the past have resulted in beings of infinite power — 

 what we should term — Gods ! 



It may, I think, be stated generally, that whatever has an 

 inherent power of increase or decrease, of growth, develop- 

 ment, or evolution, cannot possibly have existed from a past 

 " eternity '' unless the law of its evolution is an ever-recurrent 

 identical cycle, in which case, of course, it may, conceivably, 

 have existed from eternity and continue through an eternity of 

 future cycles, all identical; and, therefore, such cycles could 

 never produce anything that had not been produced an in- 

 finite number of times before. Is this a satisfactory outcome 

 for an eternal self-existent universe ? Is this easier, simpler, 

 more rational, more scientific, more philosophical, than to 

 posit one supreme mind as self-existent and eternal, of which 

 our universe and all universes are the manifestations I And 

 yet the " infinity and eternity " men call themselves ^' monists,'^ 

 and claim to be the only logical and scientific thinkers. With 

 them matter, ether, life — (surely three absolutely distinct 

 things) — with all the wonderful laws, and forces, and direc- 

 tive agencies which they imply, and without which none of 

 them could for a moment exist, all are to be accounted for and 

 explained by the one illogical assumption, their eternity ; the 

 one complete misnomer, monism ; the one alleged fundamental 

 law which explains nothing, the " law of substance." 



It will be seen that this alleged explanation — the eternal 

 material universe — does not touch the necessitv, becominc: 



