r of these hypotheses may
be taken from the use made of the theory deduced from modern physical
discoveries, that life must be merely a product of the continuous
operation of physical laws. The assumption, for it is nothing more,
that the phenomena of life are produced merely by some arrangement of
physical forces, even if it be admitted to be true, gives only a
partial explanation of the possible origin of life. It does not
account for the fact that life as a force or combination of forces is
set in antagonism to all other forces. It does not account for the
marvellous connection of life with organization. It does not account
for the determination and arrangement of forces implied in life. A
very simple illustration may make this plain. If the problem to be
solved were the origin of the mariner's compass, one might assert that
it is wholly a physical arrangement both as to matter and force.
Another might assert that it involves mind and intelligence in
addition. In some sense both would be right. The properties of
magnetic force and of iron or steel are purely physical, and it might
even be within the bounds of possibility that somewhere in the
universe a mass of natural loadstone may have been so balanced as to
swing in harmony with the earth's magnetism. Yet we would surely be
regarded as very credulous if we could be induced to believe that the
mariner's compass has originated in that way. This argument applies
with a thousandfold greater force to the origin of life, which
involves even in its simplest forms so many more adjustments of force
and so much more complex machinery.

"Fourthly, these hypotheses are partial, inasmuch as they fail to
account for the vastly varied and correlated interdependencies of
natural things and forces, and for the unity of plan which pervades
the whole. These can be explained only by taking into the account
another element from without. Even when it professes to admit the
existence of a God, the evolutionist reasoning of our day contents
itself altogether with the physical or visible universe, and leaves
entirely out of sight the power of the unseen and spiritual, as if
this were something with which science has nothing to do, but which
belongs only to imagination or sentiment. So much has this been the
case, that when recently a few physicists and naturalists have turned
to this aspect of the case, they have seemed to be teaching new and
startling truths, though only reviving some o