VITALISM. 19 



rational intelligence ; on the other side was the 

 directing principle of life, the irrational and vegeta- 

 tive Psyche. 



This distinction agrees with the fact of the diffusion 

 of life. Life does not belong to the superior animals 

 alone, and to the man in whom we can recognize a 

 reasoning soul. It is extended to the vast multitude 

 of humbler beings to which such lofty faculties cannot 

 be attributed, the invertebrates, microscopic animals, 

 and plants. The advantage is compensated for by 

 the inconvenience of breaking down all continuity 

 between the soul and life; a continuity which is the 

 principle of the two other doctrines, animism and 

 monism, and which is, we may say, the very aim and 

 the unquestionable tendency of science. 



As for classical philosophy, it satisfies the necessity 

 of establishing the unity of the living being, — i.e., of 

 bringing into harmony soul and body, — but in a 

 manner which we need not here discuss. It at- 

 tributes to the soul several modalities, several distinct 

 powers: powers of the vegetative life, powers of the 

 sensitive life, and powers of the intellectual life. And 

 this other solution of the problem would be, in the 

 opinion of M. Gardair, in complete agreement with 

 the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas. 



§ I. The Vitalism of Barthez : its Extension. 



Vitalism reached its most perfect expression in the 

 second half of the eighteenth century in the hands of 

 the representatives of the Montpellier school — Bordeu, 

 Grimaud, and Barthez. The last, in particular, 

 contributed to the prevalence of the doctrine in 



