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Editorial 



Modern science is frankly materialistic. The scientist deals with 

 things. He explains phenomena in terms of mechanics. A 

 dynamo transforms a measurable quantity of mechanical motion 

 into an equivalent of electricity. The wind blows, not "where it 

 listeth" but because certain forces are working on the air to set it 

 in motion; the direction and power of these air movements are 

 determined by the combination of operating forces and are entirely 

 predicable. Plant growth is a resultant of the many energies that 

 act upon and within the organism. "Free as a bird" is an expres- 

 sion possibly justified by poetic license but not a scientific state- 

 ment of fact for the bird's movements are all the certain conse- 

 quence of the internal liberation of the energy of food materials 

 and of the external forces such as wind, gravity, water waves. 

 Even apparently distinctly "vital" phenomena are explicable in 

 terms of physics and chemistry. Next to the production of life 

 itself, the development of the egg is a crucial vital process. Yet the 

 egg of the frog may be started on its career of development quite 

 as well by proper chemical or mechanical stimuli as by the sperm 

 from the male. 



Science, that has succeeded in explaining so many things in 

 terms of mechanics, is prone to believe that all phenomena are so 

 to be explained. Even man is looked upon as a complicated 

 machine whose actions are only the inevitable sequence of the 

 forces that impinge upon him. A "soul" for man is quite as 

 needless as some mysterious spirit for a clock, enabling it to perform 

 its complex and purposeful movements in keeping time. Such is 

 the view of many scientists. 



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