210 
declarations^ and to have their thinking done for them instead 
(d‘ thinking for themselves. Such are some of the indications 
of a decline of thought. 
The public are nowadays assured that the phenomena of 
the living world are due^ not to life, but to the molecular 
constitution of the matter of which the bodies of living things 
are composed. Ere long, however, people will find that little 
consolation, or information, is to be gained from the molecular 
constitutions that may be, and then they will perhaps be con- 
tent to be brought face to face with the facts as they are, and 
will see that the conclusion, That matter became endowed with 
vital power after, and 2^erhaps very, very tony after it had 
acquired its molecular constitution, is more in accordance 
with the facts of nature than the assumption. That all living 
forms are due to non-living properties, and that no powers 
whatever have been communicated to matter and no direct 
metabolic influence exerted, since its first creation. 
It is not now eas}^ to get a hearing for arguments in favour 
of views concerning the nature and action of living things 
which in any way conflict with what happens to be the current 
opinion of the time. The educated public has much to answer 
for as regards the unmeasured support it has for years past 
given to speculative thought of a most one-sided character, as 
well as for the tyranny it has permitted and encouraged, and 
still allows to be exercised towards any who put forward con- 
clusions which happen to be opposed to the fashionable 
dogmas of the day. 
Can apj)lause or great popularity afford any excuse for the 
unfair way in which many popular authorities have put the 
question of vital actions in living things before their hearers ? 
The alternative view is almost invariably represented as an 
absurdity, or a perverse misrepresentation of the facts. The 
extent to which mere intellectual trickery is carried in these 
days is marvellous ; but so few people think over what is 
affirmed by teachers very popular at the time, that the most 
astounding absurdities receive a sort of acquiescence, and long 
escape the exposure they deserve. Those who differ from 
materialists are credited with believing in all sorts of nonsense, 
and are said to stand upon the ancient ways, while, in point 
of fact, these professors of materialism — in their style, in their 
method of procedure, in what they teach as new — are truly 
most antiquated, for they are really trying to make the world 
go back more than two thousand years, in order that it may 
gain the inestimable advantage of reverting to a faith com- 
pared with which Mahometanism is advanced, indeed. 
In his address to the Medical Congress, Professor Huxley 
