168 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



a view, which seems to me very artificial and unnatural. 

 At this place we have only to ask, Is it possible in any, 

 even an artificial and unnatural way, to speak of a sort of 

 subsidiary or potential energy as being the natural agent 

 called by ourselves entelechy ? 



That the energy in question would be a subsidiary one, 

 would not in itself be an objection to such a view. So-called 

 chemical energy is of that kind : it is always the mere 

 difference between two amounts of thermic energy that is 

 called chemical potential energy that is all. But, it is true, 

 the " vitalistic energy " would be a rather strange sort of 

 energy in one respect. It would be absolutely indiscover- 

 able, since there would not even be any difference between 

 two discoverable energies. At least in all cases where 

 the economic equation is fulfilled there would seem to be 

 no place for a " new " energy. Vitalistic energy, therefore, 

 would mark nothing but a point of passage or transforma- 

 tion of known energies, and would not be storable in any 

 way. But, it seems to me, not even this difficulty could be 

 said to be absolute. 



Entelechy not Energy 



There exists, however, one objection to regarding entelechy 

 as being of the type of an energy that seems to me to be 

 absolute. All " energies," actually known to exist or invented 

 to complete the general energetical scheme, are quantities, 

 and relate to phenomena which have quantity among their 

 characteristics. In asserting these phenomena to be of the 

 energetical order, we state that there can be a more or less 

 of them, and that this more or less possesses most distinctly 



