Translated from the French by E. L. Bevir.

There are evidently two accounts of the birth of the universe-that is, of Genesis.

1. The first account says that the world exists because God created it, and that the Author of the universe possesses power and life without measure. This account declares that the laws of nature, the harmonious whole of all cosmic and organic functions, with the evolution of all beings, is simply explained by the activity of one Will, and that this organizing power has both begun and sustained its work up to this moment. It also declares that the laws of nature evince intelligence rather than chance, and that life gives evidence of a source of life rather than of nothing. This account is summed up thus:"In the beginning god created …"

But the second account explains the formation of the universe without God. This is how it proceeds:

2. In the beginning heaven and earth made themselves. There was nothing! Imperceptibly the world appeared, for nothing was at work ! Thus out of nothing, something was made, and chance accomplished this miracle! This was the first step in Genesis. It is true that primaeval (initial) matter was very little removed from nothing, and differed but little from an absolute vacuum. It was an imponderable substance, infinitely light and subtle, and composed of such attenuated atoms that thousands of millions of cubic yards of it would hardly have weighed the tenth part of a grain!

Outside of this there was no kind of existence; no matter, living or dead. There was nothing! But progressively matter began to give itself that which it did not possess. Being uniform, it generated variety; and though inert, gave itself force and motion! The atoms, which were next door to nothing, and could borrow nothing anywhere, endowed themselves spontaneously with hidden powers of so prodigious a nature that the vast universe, life and intelligence, came forth from them! In the meantime there was nothing but a tumultuous mass of blind energies which chance was kneading into shape.

Chance, however, brought order into this chaos, just as nothing had made something out of nothing. Unconscious disorder did, by a miracle, exactly what an intelligent and reasonable power would have done. It distributed forces, organized matter, so that the nondescript whirlwind of cosmic atoms had the extraordinary good fortune to become one vast harmony of inviolable laws, like a gigantic orchestra. Just as a type-compositor by shaking up a bag of type would bring out an epic poem; or a man, born blind, running his brush at haphazard over the canvas, would give you at the end a Rubens or a Rembrandt. It was just thus in the combination of atoms and equilibrium of the universe. A question of centuries, of millions of centuries-yes, but that is nothing! And this was the second grand period.

Led by chance, the atoms, the work of nothing, performed greater miracles than ever! You have seen the strange shapes of clouds projected in shadow on the sands, uncertain and flitting forms:they soon disappear as the wind blows. Well, the atoms of a happier or cleverer kind, after having made different kinds of bodies-liquid, solid, or gaseous-managed to mix in such a manner, to combine so marvelously, that life arose from this combination.
Modern scientists, who have analyzed the elements of living bodies and found out the proportions in which these elements combine, cannot even produce one cell animated with life. They have made great numbers of experiments and shown that life does not occur spontaneously in the midst of inanimate matter. This would require a miracle which modern science denies; yet this very miracle of which it is incapable and which it denies, has been performed by chance!

Oh, a miracle a hundred times over! Let us believe it without understanding it! The mixing of inanimate atoms by blind chance has produced beings gifted with the mysterious power of growing, of exchanging matter with the surrounding medium, of feeding, digesting, organizing and reproducing themselves, obeying a kind of interior consciousness and will! This is how life appeared! Matter was its author-matter in which life did not exist and which could not get it anywhere!

No doubt the first forms of life were very elementary. There was between it and dead matter the smallest possible difference, the shortest distance. But just as some huge mountain crevices with the narrowest orifice conceal prodigious depths, so this slight distance-between elementary life and death -revealed an abyss in the form of "spots floating on the surface of the tides and multiplying."* *This is a quotation from a book, "The World Without God." Mangasarian, 1904.*
But this is only another miracle to be put to the account of "chance and atoms."

This was the third step in creation.

The accidental combinations of living molecules brought forth new prodigies. Caring not much for natural laws, the first animated cells were able to transmit the life that they had received from nowhere, and in a more and more complex form. These were the higher steps of the growth of the universe! Chance went on with its work on primitive matter, hatched out of nothing, and formed organisms more and more perfect.

Being judicious, though unconscious, chance brewed the elements steadily for millions of centuries during which it never belied itself, until superior animals, man, intelligence, conscience, will-these being the far-off descendants of almighty nothing, that is of the original and productive void-appeared at the surface of eternal nature!

Thus the universe expanded, miraculously in bloom as a rich flower with no roots, or a river without a source.

Is there any room for a third theory as to Genesis? No! You must choose between a creation caused by the accidental meeting and mixing of atoms, and that which declares that God created everything. According to many of the learned, and not the least, this organization by chance is more than a miracle; it is inconceivable. But still we are told to shut our eyes-not in this case to what is mysterious, but to what is incoherent and absurd-and to believe this fable!

Which of the two accounts of Genesis is the more reasonable? E. Causse