CLASSIFICATION 49 



bring into his definition the source or cause of the coordi- 

 nation which, from the philosophic standpoint, should be 

 of the essence of a definition of life as distinguished from 

 living. 



Looked at as comprehensive of all living things, and 

 not as peculiar to the individual, Life might be better 

 defined as "the continued adjustment to environment," 

 since upon the exhibition of this tendency to adjust, in a 

 higher or a lower degree, depends the increase in the 

 amount of life in every particular form, or its decrease and 

 eventual extinction ; but, again, our definition is a gener- 

 alised expression for the manifestations of life without 

 reference to its cause. 



In attempting to distinguish between life and its cause, 

 we are coming dangerously near to the old doctrine of 

 "vitalism," with all its barren side-issues. Is it not better 

 for the man of science to say, " Matter, Force, Life are" 

 without attempting to conceive what they are? Let him 

 push forward his investigations as far as observation and 

 reason can advance, and construct hypotheses as to what 

 exists beyond the outposts of knowledge, so long as the 

 hypotheses are or ever can be verifiable, because such 

 hypotheses are the guiding lines of further research ; but a 

 speculation which, from the very nature of the case, is un- 

 verifiable is no better than a delusion. 



History of Science. The history of the inductive 

 sciences was brought down to 1846 by Whewell in his 

 second edition. No single man is competent to deal with 

 their further progress, collectively, since that date. It is a 

 tradition with the writers who undertake the several 

 branches of science for the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" 

 that they should preface their accounts with a short his- 

 torical review. Many of these histories are excellently 

 written and fascinating to read. But their attraction lies 

 as much, perhaps, in the record of the mistakes of men of 

 former time as in their discoveries and prophesies since 



