1 82 Indetermination in organic variability. CHAP. 



This argument appears of much importance, as 

 showing that absolute determinism is not a mathe- 

 matical truth. But it is not likely that it suggests 

 the actual modus operandi of Freedom. The processes 

 of life are not mechanical, and its laws are not re- 

 sultants from the physical and chemical properties of 

 the substances of which the organism is composed. 

 Even if all physiological processes could be referred 

 to chemical laws, this would not be true of the 

 morphological processes which build up tissues and 

 organs ; and though it might conceivably be true that 

 the law of Habit, in virtue of which every action 

 tends to become easier with repetition, and to repeat 

 itself, was a merely physical law like that whereby 

 " streams their channels deeper wear "; x yet the law 

 of heredity, whereby habits and tendencies of all 

 kinds, both active and formative, tend to be repro- 

 duced in the offspring, cannot be merely physical and 

 mechanical. In all life, even the merely organic life 

 of vegetables, there is something as absolutely in- 

 scrutable as the ultimate properties of matter ; and 

 it seems probable, though not capable of demonstra- 

 tion, that a certain limited indeterminism comes into 

 play in the living tissues of organisms. As Sabatier 

 reminds us, we do not there find, either in form or in 

 function, the rigid uniformity of inorganic nature. 

 Variation, though generally very slight, is universal ; 

 no two trees in a forest, no two leaves on a tree, are 



1 ' ' Time but the impression stronger makes, 



As streams their channels deeper wear." BUKNS. 



