The Unseen Universe: Or Physical Speculations on a Future State

The authors of The Unseen Universe, distinguished men of science, and holding moreover that it is our duty to try to account for all we see, and to push the unknown as far back as possible, discuss the theory of development, and their conclusion is that " scientifically it cannot be said to do away with the idea of a Final-Cause. It may, perhaps, eventually be possible by means of an hypothesis of evolution to account for the great variety of living forms, on the supposition of a single primordial germ to begin with; but the difficulty still remains how to account for the germ." And this surely is the " rock ahead" on which all evolutionists must make shipwreck unless they admit the essential principle of Theism. Whence this germ or cell? Whence its promise and potency?
Dr. Rigg reminds us that between the protoplasm of the dog, the chick, and the man, no practised physiologist can detect any difference, yet each is evolved after its kind; each one must therefore have either within it or without it that which accounts for the form, shape, and character it ultimately assumes. Behind or within the primary cell, there must be some power controlling and guiding its evolution, selecting its conditions, and determining the ultimate result. Are we not driven, with the authors of The Unseen Universe to affirm "not an under-life resident in the atom, but rather to adopt the words of a recent writer, a Divine over-life in which we live, move and have our being?"'
Thus we find that the ablest and sincerest scientific thinkers of our time agree with simple men and women in repudiating the idea that the history (even if accurate, which is disputed) of a process can ever be regarded as the explanation and ultimate theory of its origin and meaning. By the very construction of our minds, as Mr. Martineau has most conclusively shown, we must go beyond the event and the process to its origin and efficient cause.
-The London Quarterly Review, Volume 55