extended its empire through water, land, and air in every 
clime and habitable region. At present the evidence collected 
is so fragmentary, uncertain, and eked out by guesses, that 
an attempt to do so would draw largely on the imagination, — 
as, indeed, the theory has done in the past. But this protest, 
as it were, written in advance, was unheeded. So also were 
many more. As in the sixteenth century, so in our own time, 
an eminent scientist has got hold of “ a notion which seduces 
the imagination of those who do not ask for a rational proof.” 
After all, it may be asked, are not men’s minds even now, 
as in the sixteenth century and times long antecedent to that 
date, being led astray by words and names rather than by 
things actual and real ? What is it, as a matter of fact, that 
is indicated by such expressions as chemico-physical force, 
directive force, plastic tendency, formative force, variability, 
struggle for life, generative variability, morphological force, 
evolution, and so forth, but terms which, in their ultimate 
solution, refer to final causes — the operation and existence of 
which they are intended to obscure or ignore? These several 
terms, introduced by modern science, are no more to be 
grasped and comprehended by man than are those — grander 
in their significance — which it is their object to supersede. 
But the thing cannot be. As with the one, so with the other, 
“ belief” on our part is demanded. I, for myself, prefer to 
attach my belief in the theory of causation to that which, to 
my mind, is dignified and elevating, rather than to a doctrine 
which leaves me, physically and morally, no more than a mere 
“ evolved organism.” 
11. The Victoria Institute took an early opportunity to com- 
bat the views thus alluded to. From a very able paper read 
before it the following remarks are quoted: — “We are told 
that the protoplasmic foundation of life and organisation is 
connected with the nebulous original of suns and planetary 
systems by one chain of causation. Can an individual be 
found who will undertake to defend or to expound these 
nebulous utterances ? That talk of this kind should be deemed 
likely to enlighten the medical profession, or assist in any way 
to advance education, is most extraordinary. Is thought to 
be silenced by such utterances as this ? So far from anything 
like a chain of causation having been shown, not two links of 
such supposed chain have yet been discovered. The more 
this metaphysical utterance is thought over, the more difficult 
does it seem to get any definite meaning out of it.” * 
An able writer also discusses the same subject after this 
* On the Decline of Modern Thought. Trans., v ol. xvi. p. 201. 
