84 PSEUDO -SCIENTIFIC REALISM II 



animal, will note that a relatively formless mass of 

 matter gradually grows, takes a definite shape and 

 structure, and, finally, begins to perform actions 

 which contribute towards a certain end, namely, 

 the maintenance of the individual in the first 

 place, and of the species in the second. Starting 

 from the axiom that every event has a cause, we 

 have here the cavsa finalis manifested in the last 

 set of phenomena, the causa materialis smdformalis 

 in the first, while the existence of a causa efficiens 

 within the seed or egg and its product, is a corollary 

 from the phenomena of growth and metamorphosis, 

 which proceed in unbroken succession and make 

 up the life of the animal or plant. 



Thus, at starting, the egg or seed is nfatttr 

 having a " form " like all other material bodies. 

 But this form has the peculiarity, in contradistinc- 

 tion to lower substantial " forms," that it is a power 

 which constantly works towards an end by means 

 of living organisation. 



So far as I know, Leibnitz is the only philosopher 

 (at the same time a man of science, in the modern 

 sense, of the first rank) who has noted that the 

 modern conception of Force, as a sort of atmosphere 

 enveloping the particles of bodies, and having 

 potential or actual activity, is simply a new name 

 for the Aristotelian Form. 1 In modern biology, up 

 till within quite recent times, the Aristotelian con- 



1 " Les formes des anciens ou Entelechies ne sont autre chose 

 que les forces'' (Leibnitz, Lettre au Ptre Bouvet, 1697). 



