time, and then we come to another--the introduction of LIFE. I will not
pause to consider that here; we shall see presently that it is
impossible to regard life as merely a quality or property of matter.
When we have passed that, we have a third stoppage, the introduction of
_Reason_ or _Intelligence_; and then a fourth, the introduction of the
_Spiritual faculties_, which cannot be placed on the same footing as
mere reason. So that to get over the first point, and dispense with a
Cause or a Creator of matter, is of no avail: it is incredible that
there should be no Creator of matter, but that there should be a Creator
of life--an Imparter of reason, an Endower of soul.

But let us revert to the first stage and look at the nature of MATTER.




CHAPTER IV.


_CREATIVE DESIGN IN INORGANIC MATTER._

I take as self-evident the enormous difficulty of self-caused,
self-existent matter. And when we see that matter _acting_, not
irregularly or by caprice, but _by law_ (as every class of philosopher
will admit), then it is still further difficult to realize that matter
not only existed as a dead, simple, inactive thing, but existed with a
folded-up history inside it, a long sequence of development--not the
same for all particles, but various for each group: so that one set
proceeded to form the _object_, and another the _environment_ of the
object; or rather that a multitude of sets formed a vast variety of