220 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



happening. A combination of processes of the following 

 kind, it seems to me, is well able to explain what I suppose 

 to be the work of entelechy. An element of mass m moves 

 with velocity v, until it comes within range of a repulsive 

 force ; its velocity then decreases constantly until it becomes 

 zero. That point will be reached when the amount of its 



m 



original kinetic energy -^v has been equalled by the 



,u 



potential energy derived from the repulsive agent. Finally, 

 the element m receives an impulse in a direction opposite 

 to the original one, and this impulse decreasing from 

 moment to moment, as velocity increases will last until 

 the element has reached its original velocity, and also its 



771 



original kinetic energy v 2 , taken in the opposite sense. 



l 



Now imagine that the process of constantly decreasing 

 motion just described, is suspended by entelechy at some 

 stage or other say at the moment in which the velocity is 



m 

 v in such a form that the amount of v^ is transformed 



into an equivalent amount of " potential " energy, localised 

 at the place of m and kept there until it is set free, that 



m 

 is, transformed into the actual kinetic energy 77^ again. 



Could not such a thing happen without any relation to 

 questions of energetics ? Certainly it could, for the process 

 of suspending would not touch the amount of energy in any 

 way, though it would interfere with inertia, and the process 

 of relaxing suspension would be in no sense equivalent 

 to an " Auslosung ' : or removing of obstacles. The 

 mechanical process we have imagined is represented very 



