ESSAYS 307 



and kinds of complexity which characterise natural systems in general ; we shall 

 find that, while they appear first as " mechanical," this character speedily becomes 

 transformed into some higher category. For to every such system, whatever its 

 specific character, each of its diverse constituents contributes its own distinct 

 active nature and properties, through each of which some quite definite relation 

 is maintained with the environment. It is obvious, therefore, that every increase 

 in the number of constituents will, as a general principle, make more complex the 

 system's relations to other individuals — i.e. render the system more sensitive and 

 responsive to external change and influence. Systems of relatively few con- 

 stituents will thus be capable of but few reactions ; their total activities will lie 

 within only narrow limits, and will therefore be easily ascertainable and exactly 

 predictable ; their innate energies will readily be wholly absorbed within the 

 system itself, 1 which then reacts as a stable static and insensitive whole ; — is, in 

 short, a "mechanism." For in calling any system "mechanical," it is essentially 

 these characteristics which are in principle implied. 3 The constitution of every 

 "mechanism" being (relatively) simple, its actions can have relatively little 

 variety ; as the results of the activities of but few constituents, they are easily 

 determined with almost absolute exactness 3 ; its equilibrium is stable 4 ; indeed it 

 is (somewhat paradoxically) just for these reasons that we often call activities 

 "mechanical" which are normally quite the reverse — e.g. human character and 

 action under certain abnormal conditions ; and " all modern nations," as Lotze 

 remarks, " speak of the mechanism of government, of taxation, of business," 5 with 

 unquestionable correctness ; as, again, we may do of the reflex and instinctive 

 activities of organisms. 



(5) This being true as regards the essential meaning of " mechanism," what 

 now are the inevitable results of continuous increase in the number and diversity 

 of the systematic constituents ? We shall find that the " mechanical " character, 

 as just defined, slowly disappears, undergoing a gradual transformation into a type 

 which at present we may call (negatively) non-mechanical 6 — a "higher" category 

 which is manifested in many diverse modes, of which one constitutes Vitality — 

 Life ; but neither in this nor in any other case is there ever any gap — any sharp 

 division — absolutely separating these "higher" modes from the "lower" grade of 

 mechanism. 



For every additional constituent brings to the entire system, and retains within 



1 Cf. a "bound" electric charge. 



2 A "machine" is merely an artificial, as distinguished from a natural, 

 mechanical system. The character of purpose, emphasised by Prof. Hartog, is no 

 proper criterion, for every system as such implies some purpose. 



3 Thus a good machine serves its purpose exactly, and nothing more ; this 

 principle is plainly not affected by the constant tendency towards more complex 

 machines, so long as superfluous parts are avoided. 



4 This is true even of explosives, which are unstable only under some extremely 

 limited set of conditions. 



5 Metaphysic, vol. ii. p. 1 16. 



6 But a system, in becoming automatic, becomes not more mechanical, but less. 

 No mechanism can be truly automatic, in the strict sense of completely self- 

 directing. The prevailing confusion between automatism and mechanism depends 

 on our actual machines being automatic merely in some relatively simple details, 

 and not on a large scale ; — where this does become possible the final effect at 

 once becomes non- mechanical, as e.g. in a good pianola; and true automatism— 

 i.e. self-direction and determination — is found only in living and conscious in- 

 dividuals, 



