A SURVEY OF THE PROBLEM OF VITALISM 415 



of sequences — few laws of science, that is — had been recognised. 

 Occurrences were largely haphazard and unaccountable, un- 

 related to any visible antecedent cause. They fell therefore 

 within the purview of the spiritualistic world : and a very large 

 proportion of the ordinary vicissitudes of life were regarded 

 as under the immediate control of irresponsible and omnipotent 

 spirits, with very human passions and interests. 



As centuries passed on, many classes of events, previously 

 unaccountable and arbitrary, fell into their place in the ex- 

 panding system of scientific laws. They were perceived not 

 to be haphazard after all, but to follow strictly uniform 

 sequences, so that in simple cases their occurrence could with 

 entire confidence be prophesied beforehand. For these classes 

 of events there was no further occasion for the assumption of 

 spirits, which accordingly were discarded as a means of ex- 

 planation. But many other classes of events remained, not 

 so easily correlated with any recognisable laws; and for the 

 explanation of these, spiritual influence was still retained. As 

 these more complex events continued to yield before increasing 

 knowledge, the conception ultimately arose that all events are 

 in reality the product of natural law, that the uniformity of 

 nature is complete, and that the arbitrary and unaccountable 

 character of certain kinds of events is simply an appearance — 

 that such events are, like all others, due to some particular 

 constellation of material causes, though too numerous and 

 intricate to be immediately unravelled. 



No sooner was this conception reached than it was applied 

 to the most extreme case of arbitrary events — the activities and 

 conduct of man. It had always been extremely difficult to 

 believe that human thought and behaviour were controlled 

 by the ordinary material laws of cause and effect, and in short 

 that all human activities were simply a special manifestation of 

 physical and chemical processes, which, although of incredible 

 intricacy, yet worked out their effects with the same fatal and 

 absolute necessity that characterises the most elementary 

 phenomena of the inorganic world. Such a belief, moreover, 

 seemed to be directly contradicted by introspection ; for are 

 we not conscious of possessing a mind, altogether separate 

 from our material bodies ? Do we not know that our actions 

 are controlled largely by mental processes, and cannot there- 

 fore be a necessary product of our material organisation ? Does 



