THE WILLS OF ATOMS 



then a certain mass of the plasma might be imagined as the 

 organ of will, since it is certain that the nucleus develops 

 from the ordinary plasma, appears as a " precipitate " therein. 

 However, we shall shortly see that much which appears to be 

 voluntary action in such low organisms is certainly nothing 

 of the kind. 



E. v. Hartmann, Haeckel, and others, speak of the will of 

 atoms : in order to surmount the difficulty of the limitation, 

 in other words, of the origin of the voluntary action, they 

 attribute will to all protoplasm and all matter. This 

 assumption implies another, namely, that atoms are endowed 

 with sensation, that sensation and capacity for stimulation 

 cannot be separated (Zollner). In this way the question of 

 the first appearance of sensation is also got rid of. All organisms 

 possess sensation, plants included, and in the unicellular the 

 protoplasm is endowed with both sensation and will. 1 Nay, 

 even the atoms of inorganic bodies have sensation. " On 

 what, " says Haeckel, 2 " finally rests the generally accepted 

 chemical doctrine of the relations of affinity of bodies, unless 

 on the unconscious assumption that the atoms which attract 

 or repel one another are animated with definite inclinations, 

 and that they, following these sensations or impulses, possess 

 also the will and the power to move towards one another and 

 from one another ? ... If the ' will ' of man and the higher 

 animals seems free in contrast with the ' fixed ' will of the 

 atoms, this is a deception caused by the contrast between the 

 extremely complex voluntary motions of the former and the 

 extremely simple voluntary motions of the latter. The atoms 

 will the same thing everywhere and at all times, because 

 their inclination towards the atom of every other element is 

 . . . unchangeable and defined. ... On the other hand, the 



1 Botanists, in fact, always speak of the sensation of plants, make no distinction 

 between irritability and sensation. 



2 E. Haeckel, Die Perigenesis der Plastidule oder die Wellenzeugung der 

 Lebenstheilchen, Berlin, 1876. 



