blind followers." Wise words! They are those of the author
with whom we are dealing. To say "we know" when really we only surmise
is a misuse of language, just as it is also a misuse to ask the question
"Does nature make a departure from its previously ordered procedure and
substitute chance for law?" since the ordinary reader is all too apt to
forget that "Nature" is a mere abstraction, and that to speak of Nature
doing such or such a thing helps us in no way along the road towards an
explanation of things.

Or again: "So far as the _creative_ power of energy is concerned, we are
on sure ground." The author has a careful note on the word creation (p.
5), "the production of something new out of nothing," under which
definition it is abundantly clear that energy, whilst it may be
_productive_, cannot be _creative_. In fact, nothing can be _creative_
in any definite and rigid sense, save a _Creator_ Who existed from all
eternity and from Whom all things arose. One more instance of loose
argumentation, and we can turn to the main purport of the book. It is a
link in the author's "chain" which cannot be passed without examination.
Everybody is familiar with the method of proof by elimination. We set
down every possible explanation of a certain occurrence; we rule out one
after the other until but one is left. If we really have set down all
the possible explanations, and if we are quite clear as to the fact that
all those which have been excluded are legitimately put out of court,
then the one remaining explanation must be the true one. It is a method
of proof which has frequently been applied to the vitalistic problem,
and with the greatest effect, as it is admitted by some of those who
would greatly like to find a materialistic explanation for that problem
(cf. _The Philosophy of Biology_, Johnstone, p. 319).

Let us see how our author employs it. What, he asks, is "the internal
moving principle" in living substance? And he replies: "We may first
exclude the possibility that it acts either through supernatural or
teleological interposition through an externally creative power." Very
well! Philosophers tell us that we can assume any position we choose for
the purposes of our argument, but that ultimately we must prove that
assumption or admit ourselves beaten. We look anxiously for the proof of
the assumption made by our author, but absolutely no attempt is made to
give one. We must be pardoned, therefore, if we hesitate t