THE UNIQUENESS OF LIFE 159 



tudinous with all its tides and currents and great and little 

 waves, constitute a mechanism ; the heavens themselves, the 

 sun and moon and all the little stars, are a glorious mecha- 

 nism. The whole material aspect of the universe is a mecha- 

 nism ; we know not how it has its being, but we know that it 

 lives and moves obedient to everlasting laws; and the same 

 Benedicite Dominum is addressed to the Showers and Dew 

 and to the Winds of God as to all that move in the waters 

 and all that move in the air, and to all the Beasts and Cattle, 

 and unto the Children of Men" (D'Arcy Thompson, Life 

 and Finite Individuality, p. 52). 



This is admirably said, yet we do not think that the 

 category of * mechanism ' exhausts the reality of the earth 

 and the heavens', still less that of the flower in the crannied 

 wall. It is mainly a matter of method: Are mechanical 

 categories sufficient in biology or must we have biological 

 categories as well? For practical purposes, moreover, the 

 theory of organism transcending mechanism is to be recom- 

 mended. It has pragmatic sanction. 



6. Descriptive or Methodological Vitalism: the 

 'Biological' View. 



Looking backwards, we cannot accept the view that the 

 study of animal behaviour is just the study of very intricate 

 and at present insoluble problems in chemistry and physics ; 

 we cannot accept the view that organisms exhibit a new kind 

 of physical energy or several of them ; and we cannot accept 

 the thoroughgoing vitalistic theory of an Entelechy. What, 

 then, is our position ? 



We wish primarily and scientifically to stand for what 

 may be called ' descriptive ' or ' methodological ' vitalism. 

 Unable to attain any discernment of the essence of the differ- 



