FOOTNOTE TO “PROF. L. BEALE, F.R.S., ON MODERN SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT”

[The Theosophist, Vol. III, No. 11, August, 1882, p. 270]

[Professor Lionel Beale, in an address before the members of the Victoria Philosophical Institute, London, referred to the opinions existing among scientific men as to the worth of the “physical doctrine of life.” He said: “no form of the hypothesis which attributes the phenomena of the living world to mere matter and its properties has been, or can be, justified by reason. . . . I believe all materialistic doctrines . . . will be found to agree in accepting as a truth . . . the monstrous assumption that the living and the non-living are one. . . .” H. P. B. comments:]

The assumption is “monstrous” indeed, as presented to us by modern materialism which rejects with the idea of a personal creator, every other intelligent principle in nature. But is it more “monstrous” or less illogical to attribute the creation of a boundless universe out of nothing and to father the same upon a finite and conditioned personal deity? There is much to say on both sides; and very soon it will be said.

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