76 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND MIND 



the evolution of the boat plainly shows). We should thus 

 have a lowly worm-like organism. Continued motion 

 through the water would cause folds on the back of the 

 animal (which would shape into fins), and strengthen the 

 central column until it became cartilage and finally bone. 

 From the fish upward the evolution of life is intelligible 

 enough. All the reptiles, birds, and mammals are clearly 

 traced to a fish-ancestor. 



It would be ridiculous to expect science already to furnish 

 a complete mechanical scheme of this million-year process 

 of development. We may leave something for our children 

 and grandchildren to do. But it would be equally ridiculous 

 to say that, until such a scheme is forthcoming, we can be 

 seriously asked to consider the spiritist theory. The logical 

 alternative to mechanism is not spiritism, but agnosticism. 

 Spiritist theories about life have no logical status whatever 

 unless they prove that the mechanical theory is not only 

 temporarily, but for ever, incompetent to explain life. The 

 Vitalist can only ask us to believe in his immaterial world 

 when he has pointed out some feature of life that lies clearly 

 beyond any possible extension of physical and chemical 

 forces. We have seen that there is nothing whatever of the 

 kind in the life of the simplest organisms. At what point 

 are such features claimed to appear ? 



Unfortunately, Sir O. Lodge shrinks from assigning any 

 definite point for us to examine. He prefers to use the 

 word " life " " in a quite general sense " (p. 40). To view 

 things in a quite general sense is one of the most prolific 

 sources of fallacy known to science. If we take those 



