LIFE AND THE COSMOS 307 



remove from the latter view, if I may, some of 

 the objections which are commonly raised 

 against it in scientific circles, conscious that 

 in this attempt I am overstepping the bound- 

 aries of natural science. 



It is evident that a perfect mechanistic 

 description of the building of a house may be 

 conceived. Within the world of physical 

 science the whole process is logically complete 

 without consideration of the architect's de- 

 sign and purpose. Yet such design and 

 purpose, whether or not in themselves of 

 mechanistic origin, are at one and the same 

 time determining factors in the result, and 

 nowise components of the physical process. 

 Now it seems clear that a similar effect of a 

 tendency working steadily through the whole 

 process of evolution is also at least conceive- 

 able, however small its bearing upon science, 

 provided, like time itself, it be a perfectly 

 independent variable, making up, therefore, 

 with time the constant environment, so to 

 speak, of the evolutionary process. The tend- 

 ency must not be demonstrable either by 

 weighing or by measuring, else it would 

 amount to an interference within the mech- 



with established facts." — Herbert Spencer, "The Prin- 

 ciples of Biology." New York and London, 1909, Vol. I, 

 revised and enlarged edition, p. 416. 



