THE SPECTRE OF VITALISM 459 



strange names are given — vital force being one of the common- 

 est. Not only is there no evidence whatever for the existence 

 of any such shadowy forms but if there were they would not 

 contribute one particle to an explanation : for such entities are 

 in themselves even more mysterious than the facts they are 

 called in to enlighten. The arguments by which Driesch and 

 the mystics support their views are precisely the same as those 

 by which primitive peoples advocate their gods. And not 

 primitive peoples only but the majority of our own society. 

 They see the trees and the grass growing and all kinds of 

 animals and plants : and they say, how can all this have come 

 to pass without the intervention of God? Just so, Driesch 

 contemplates the unexplained facts of organic development 

 and asks : How can all this have come to pass without the 

 intervention of entelechy ? By this method, there need remain 

 no obscurities in all the range of knowledge. For whenever 

 facts are unexplained, it is only necessary to invent a ghost, give 

 it a name and ask the " materialist " how he is going to explain 

 the facts without it. The materialist, on the other hand, will 

 regret the introduction of the new factor. In his view, the ghost, 

 even if established, makes the facts no easier to understand : the 

 mystery becomes ever more hopeless ; for the facts alone would 

 be simpler to explain than the facts plus the ghost. The 

 materialist will see in all this nothing but the overweening pride 

 of ignorance : a pride so great that it remains confident and 

 unabashed in the infinite regions of the unknown : an ignorance 

 so great as to suppose that the greatest mysteries of the universe 

 may be dissolved by recourse to ethereal " principles " built up 

 by man from among the ghosts and fairies which flit at large 

 through his untrained mind. 



