Page 17 (1/1)
"Yes, and quite irrespective of the opinion of the one who takes it His thinking it water will not check or change its action in the slightest degree"
"But how does it kill?" persisted Clarke "What does it do?"
"If youattack cells and the other nourish them, I answer, frankly, I don't know--nobody knows"
Clarke pursued his point "Under the erm of, say, tetanus is a minute bar with spore at the end like the head of a tadpole Of what is this cell composed?"
"Probably of a jelly-like substance with excessively minute filaments, but we don't know We are at the limit of the microscope We trace certain processes, we even dissect certain cells, but elemental coloith triumph "Then you confess yourself baffled? The union of matter and spirit is beyond your microscope What do you know about a drop of water? You say it is foren in such and such proportions What is hydrogen? Why do they unite?"
"I don't know," calmly replied Serviss "We admit that any material substance remains inexplicable The molecule lies far below the line of visibility We only push the zone of the known a little farther into the realu that themystery in a world of mysteries, and that there is no known limit to what it may do We say that at the point where life enters to differentiate the germ is beyond science--there of necessity faith is born"
"You say 'we'--are you an apostle of 'the new church'?" asked Serviss, abruptly
The preacher visibly shrank "I do not care to announce ation, at present; but I find s about the doctrine which appeal to y--the very faith I preach--has becoe; some sweeter andneer for man, new realms for the spirit You ards You pore upon the culture of germs, but shut your eyes to the rave of less account than the habits of ani scientist listened to this query with outward courtesy, but inwardly his gorge rose "I see one gain in your new position," he answered, lightly "Matter is no longer the dead, inorganic, 'godless thing' which the old-ti some inert lump, is permeated with life--is life itself So far as , all the visible and tangible universe is resolvable into terms of force--that is to say, chemical process There anic and the inorganic"