THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 225 



a something which is non-energetical interferes, though not 

 with the amount of mechanical energy as a whole yet with 

 inertia, and therefore with the amounts of the two types of 

 mechanical energy respectively. But let us not forget in 

 this place that there also was a great contrast between vital 

 phenomena and the complete " science of inorganic or spatial 

 becoming " that is to be written in the future. Entelechy, 

 as endowed with the faculty of enlarging the amount of 

 diversity in the distribution of given elements, was in 

 opposition to that future science. 



Of course, what we have said about entelechy and 

 mechanics would imply most clearly that entelechy can 

 augment any " diversity of distribution." Thus this point 

 does not need any further explanation in this chapter. The 

 work of the " demons ' : of Maxwell is here regarded as 

 actually accomplished. 



S. CERTAIN BRITISH AUTHORS ON LIFE AND MECHANICS 



That life must be most intimately related to the 

 direction of the motion of masses is no uncommon view 

 with physicists and chemists, especially in this country. 

 Lord Kelvin speaks of the organism as endowed with the 

 power of " directing and moving particles," and Tait regards it 

 as simply " unscientific " even to attempt a mechanical ex- 

 planation of life. Both these statements J are rather general. 



1 Lord Kelvin, Popular Lectures, ii. p. 464 ff. ; Fortnightly Rev. , 1892, vol. 

 li. p. 313. Tait, Contcmp. Rev., 1878, 31 Jan., p. 298. Lord Kelvin also 

 refers to the impossibility of understanding the fact of inheritance on the 

 theory of an accidental concourse of atoms. Our second proof of vitalism 

 (see vol. i. p. 226) implies the same statement. 



15 



