Mechanism, Vitalism, and Teleology 353 



finally and forever put an end to this extravagant doctrine. 

 "Bridgewaterism is dead." As Darwin says, "There seems 

 to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and 

 in the action of natural selection than in the course which 

 the wind blows." The adaptations of organisms are natural 

 and not supernatural phenomena, and their causes are to be 

 found, not in the individual creative acts of some infinite 

 Designer but in natural forces and conditions. It may be that 

 these forces and conditions are at present unknown and their 

 method of action mysterious, but at least they are natural, 

 unless all distinctions between nature and the supernatural 

 are to be abandoned. Certainly the fertilization of an egg, 

 the development of an embryo, the formation of an eye, 

 acclimatization to extreme temperatures, tolerance for poi- 

 sons, repairs of injuries, etc., are natural phenomena, and 

 neither religion nor science, poetry nor truth, are served by 

 denying this fact. 



2. Vitalism 



At present there are few if any defenders of the dogma 

 that each and every adaptation was supernaturally created 

 for the purpose which it now serves, but there are many 

 who maintain that living things contain some sort of intel- 

 ligence, will, or soul which directs their activities to desired 

 ends. The phenomena of life are so mysterious and won- 

 derful and so different from inorganic phenomena that to 

 the great majority of mankind it seems incredible that they 

 should be the effects of purely mechanistic causes. Accord- 

 ingly from time immemorial the activities of animals and 

 plants have been attributed to some mysterious vital force, 

 anima, spiritus rector, unconscious purpose, or will, which 

 is wholly different from the causes of inorganic phenom- 

 ena, which lies beyond the reach of scientific investigation, 



