the materialistic position that
there is nothing in the world but matter, force, and necessity, is as
utterly devoid of justification as the most baseless of theological
dogmas."[11]

But a dogma of Necessity would be more tolerable than a doctrine of
Chance. In Lord Kelvin's address, to which reference has been made, he
declared his conviction that "directive power" was "an article of
belief which science compelled him to accept."

There was nothing, he said, between such a belief and the acceptance of
the theory of a fortuitous concourse of atoms. And, in a letter to the
_Times_ justifying this assertion, he told how forty years before he
had asked Liebig, when walking with him in the country, whether he
believed that the grass {45} and flowers they saw around them "grew by
mere chemical forces." "No," he answered, "no more than I could
believe that a book of botany describing them could grow by mere
chemical forces."

Discussions may continue as to whether what Huxley called "the wider
teleology," or some other form of the doctrine of Design is to be
preferred; but thoughtful men are likely to agree with the judgment
given by Sir George Stokes--that recognised master of masters--when he
said: "We meet with such overwhelming evidence of design, of purpose,
especially in the study of living things, that we are compelled to
think of mind as being involved in the constitution of the
universe."[12]

[1] _Fragments of Science_, p. 166.

[2] _Life and Letters_, I., p. 307.

[3] May 2nd, 1903.

[4] The debate as to the accuracy of the Mosaic account of Creation
does not come directly within the scope of our survey; but,
nevertheless, it may be worth while to recall the following statement
in view of the very confident assertions that have often been made, by
no less an authority than Romanes. "The order in which the flora and
fauna are said by the Mosaic account to have appeared upon the earth
corresponds with that which the theory of evolution requires and the
evidence of geology proves."--(_Nature_, August 11th, 1881.)

[5] _Lay Sermons_.

[6] _Critiques and Addresses_, pp. 305, 308.

[7] _Life and Letters_, I., p. 309.

[8] I., p. 314.

[9] _Life and Letters_, III., p. 189.

[10] _Life and Letters_ of Romanes, pp. 88.

[11] Essay on "The Physical Basis of Life" (1868).

[12] _Gifford Lectures_ (1891), p. 196.

{46}

CHAPTER V

THE COUNTER-ARGUMENTS (_continued_)

But though Materi