''DIRECTIVITY" A WITNESS OF MIND 79 



" The various theories may be divided into two classes 

 — 'the advocates of the one class maintaining that all the 

 phenomena of life, all the changes which take place in 

 organic nature, are the result of purely chemical and 

 physical agencies ; while the other party maintain that 

 there must be something more than the ordinary chemical 

 and physical forces at work." 



From what I have said above it will be gathered that 

 Materialistic Monists, like Haeckel and many physiolo- 

 gists of different countries, appear to repudiate everything 

 except chemical and physical forces ; taking no account 

 of this Determination which Mr. Croll insists upon, or 

 what I have called Directivity in the building up the 

 structures of animals and plants. 



That life in any organisation is maintained by the 

 assimilation of food is obvious. Hence we might say 

 that " vital force " is chemical force transformed. The 

 same remark holds true of the mechanical and other 

 physical energies of the body. The energy by which the 

 arm is raised or by which the heart beats is derived from 

 the food. Animal heat is derived from chemical com- 

 bination, and so on. 



" So far as all this is concerned the advocates of the 

 physical theory of life are evidently correct. But are 

 they warranted in affirming, as they do, that all the 

 energies of plants and animals are either chemical or 

 physical ? . . . Are the known forms of energy mani- 

 fested in the inorganic world sufficient to account for the 

 phenomena of life and organic nature ? 



" Chemistry and physics are insufficient because they 

 do not account for the Objective Idea in Nature. 



" Whatever may be one's opinions regarding the 

 doctrine of Final Causes and the evidence of Design in 

 Nature, all must admit the existence of the Objective Idea in 



