Evolution of Life. 93 



a clock." That is to say, that to regard life as 

 being in any sense a common existing principle, as 

 anything more than a mere succession of phenomena 

 in connection with a particular apparatus of matter, 

 is as foolish and unreasonable as if, looking at a 

 clock, you should separate its going property from 

 the mechanism of the clock itself. A purely 

 mechanical view of nature is thus taken, and life- 

 processes are regarded as being due to the unstable 

 equilibrium of protoplasm ; the series of these life- 

 processes is brought about merely by mechanical 

 and chemical changes, the actions called vital being 

 thus mechanical in their character. But at the 

 last meeting of the British Association, the Presi- 

 dent of the Chemical Section chemistry having 

 been the very science to lead the scientific world 

 towards materialism in this respect has taken up 

 an entirely different standpoint, a point that brings 

 the question into a line with ancient thinking, and 

 that starts the investigations of western Science 

 along a road whereon the most fruitful results are 

 likely to be encountered. Dr. Japp, the President 

 of that Section, compares the action of life to the 

 action of an operator who is deliberately working 

 with a purpose, using knowledge and will in order 

 to bring about a definite result. " The operator," 

 he says, " exercises a guiding power which is akin, 



