The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer

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Gerard John. The Old Riddle and the Newest Answer

PREFACE

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

I. TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

II. REASON AND SCIENCE

III "EVOLUTION"

IV "THE LAW OF EVOLUTION"

V. WHAT IS A "LAW OF NATURE"?

VI "THE LAW OF SUBSTANCE"

VII "THE SEVEN ENIGMAS"

VIII. MATTER AND MOTION

IX. THE PROBLEM OF LIFE

X. ANIMAL AND MAN

XI. THE ORDER OF NATURE

XII. PURPOSE AND CHANCE

XIII. MONISM

XIV. ORGANIC EVOLUTION

XV. DARWINISM

XVI. THE FACTS OF EVOLUTION

XVII "AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM"

XVIII. TO SUM UP

APPENDIX

Отрывок из книги

IN this edition, which has been thoroughly revised throughout, a few corrections have had to be made, especially in the Index, and in one or two instances alterations or additions have appeared advisable for the sake of clearness or accuracy of expression. Nothing has, however, as yet been brought to the author's notice which affects any substantial point in what he has written.

July 28, 1904.

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Believing, as I do, in the continuity of nature, I cannot stop abruptly where our microscopes cease to be of use. Here the vision of the mind authoritatively supplements the vision of the eye. By a necessity engendered and justified by Science I cross the boundary of the experimental evidence… If you ask me whether there exists the least evidence to prove that any form of life can be developed out of matter, without demonstrable antecedent life… [men of science] will frankly admit their inability to point to any satisfactory experimental proof that life can be developed, save from demonstrable antecedent life.

Far, however, from being a mere figment, his mental vision is represented as the most unalloyed product of reason. He writes:85

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