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kindj and the facts of nature are too often distorted and made 
to bend to the requirements of artificial and ridiculous creeds 
resting on authority only. 
Thoughtful persons must be surprised that the constant 
repetition^ without any attempt at proof, of *such assertions as, 
that all living things are mechanisms, mere machines, and 
that in the living matter of their bodies there is molecular 
machinery — does not of itself lead to the exposure of the 
extreme weakness of the materialistic view. For is it reasonable 
to suppose that the ardent advocates of materialistic doctrine 
would be content with vain repetitions if they could explain 
and illustrate their assertions so as to make them intelligible ? 
Would they not offer remarks concerning the sort of machinery 
they say exists ? Would they not tell us how it appeared, some- 
thing about its structure, the way in which it was put together, 
the mode in which it was dissolved and renovated, the means 
by which it was made to act ? Would they not have something 
to suggest concerning the forces or powers by which the work- 
ing of the machinery was directed, and the probable source of 
these, as well as their ultimate fate ? Would they not, if they 
could have done so, have given diagrams of the molecular 
machinery of their imagination for the instruction and edi- 
fication of their less learned and weaker brethren ? But, 
instead of this, all that men of this persuasion seem able 
to do is to repeat again and again the same monstrous 
assertions. That living matter and non-living matter differ 
only in degree, and that the action of living matter is 
due to molecular machinery. But, besides giving to non- 
living matter molecular machinery, the capacities and powers 
which the living alone possesses are sometimes given to the 
molecules of inorganic matter. Professor Huxley, for example, 
goes so far as to affirm that these inorganic molecules have 
the power of sensitively adjusting themselves.-’^ Indeed, 
one would not be surprised if it were discovered that certain 
molecules which had acquired advantages over others arranged 
themselves in such positions as would enable them most 
successfully to jostle weaker molecules and take the places 
they were the fittest to occupy. 
That such vague notions should be accepted by any but a 
few enthusiasts who knew nothing of the facts would be sur- 
prising; but that such very imperfectly considered conclusions 
should be accepted by many and become really popular, indi- 
cates that there is somehow a demand, for them — a desire or 
determination on the part of people to receive them — a longing 
to believe them, and a conviction that they will be proved to 
be true — a determination to rely upon mere authoritative 
