THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE AND MIND 91 



(as Mr. Whetham does) is absurd. We are thus left 

 without the slenderest definition of what spirit is. It is the 

 mere shadow of an ancient name. 



And this is only one of the difficulties that beset Sir 

 Oliver Lodge's theory the moment you examine it closely. 

 A hundred difficulties arise as to the manner in which this 

 immaterial entity acts on the matter of the animal's frame. 

 If it be true that, as he says, modern physics sees only 

 ether-particles in motion in the universe, the question how 

 the immaterial can act on the ether-particles and "direct" 

 their movements is a serious one. Against his biological 

 critics he makes, or tries to make, one point of importance 

 in the name of physics : 



My contention is and in this contention I am practi- 

 cally speaking for my brother physicists that whereas life 

 or mind can neither generate energy nor directly exert 

 force, yet it can cause matter to exert force on matter, and 

 so can exercise guidance and control : it can so prepare 

 any scene of activity, by arranging the position of existing 

 material, and timing the liberation of existing energy, as 

 to produce results concordant with an idea or scheme or 

 intention (p. 164). 



Now, if in this vague statement Sir Oliver Lodge is 

 making a claim for " life or mind " that is not admitted 

 by the biologists he sets out to attack, he has no warrant 

 whatever for speaking in the name of his " brother physi- 

 cists." His words are more misleading for the " uncultured 

 reader," for whom he is so concerned, than any that 

 Haeckel has penned. One or two physicists like Lord 

 Kelvin or Sir W. Crookes might agree with him, but they 



