A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF LIFE 85 



So far as the second of these possibilities is concerned, the men of 

 the future will be no better fitted to deal with it than we are, and as 

 for the first it is practically like the other, and useless as an explanation 

 for an explanation which by the nature of the case we can not under- 

 stand, is a contradiction in terms. 



Aside from the impotence of the vital X as an explanation, its 

 spokesmen are guilty of reasoning unbecoming to men of science, for 

 they attempt to furnish us with an efficient cause of vital action, a 

 captain who steers the ship of life. But consciousness, the nearest 

 known possible relative of the problematic X, is certainly not a cause 

 in man's life, for however much prejudice may incline us to adhere to 

 the opposite view, consciousness is neither more nor less than a condi- 

 tion. It is true that we must recognize it and deal frankly with it, for 

 in its absence man's life assuredly would not be what it is. But the 

 same thing might be said of respiration, of digestion, of the environ- 

 ment, or of any one of the multitude of conditions under which life 

 occurs, and is what it is. And the same thing would unquestionably be 

 true of the vital X, for if it could be proved to be something with which 

 he who would give a scientific explanation of life must reckon, if indeed 

 it were shown to be the element without which it is impossible to under- 

 stand how the right thing happens in the right place, at the right time 

 and to the proper degree, science instead of having engulfed a real cause, 

 would simply be enriched by the capture of one more of the conditions 

 under which some of the substances in nature live. 



If nature were a limited system, there would be some hope of 

 ultimate acquaintance with all the conditions of life, but as the universe 

 is unlimited, no foundation for this hope exists, and one need but 

 reflect, as Brooks did, on the growth of knowledge to realize the truth 

 of these words : 



Each scientific discovery shows us new and unsuspected wonders in nature. 

 The unexplained things which are brought to our knowledge by each scientific 

 explanation far outnumber the things it explains. The progress of knowledge 

 is no mere comprehension, or gathering in. It is more like sowing seed than 

 gathering a harvest, for the known world grows with knowing. 



We are told that "when every fact, every past or present phenomenon of 

 the universe, every phase of present and past life therein, has been examined, 

 classified and coordinated with the rest, then the mission of science will be com- 

 plete." But if we are to judge the future by the past, classification and coor- 

 dination will always show us more unclassified and uncoordinated things than 

 they classify and coordinate. 



Each new encyclopedia is bigger than the one before, and so, no doubt, it 

 will be to the end. If knowledge were nothing more than comprehension, or the 

 analysis and classification of facts, the progress of science should be bringing 

 us nearer to universal knowledge, but each new discovery puts it farther from 

 our grasp than before, and they who know most, are most convinced of its 



