206 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



which it may be replied, first, that there is no 

 kind of evidence for the things by which Pro- 

 fessor Weismann explains the phenomena of 

 life, and, secondly, that if they were all as clear 

 and patent as the rails and sleepers on a railway 

 line they would no more explain the operations 

 of nature than those parts of the railway system 

 explain to us how the locomotive comes to be 

 able to haul its load along them. 



This explanation then is another example of 

 a verbal explanation which explains nothing. 

 But, as we have already said, it may be argued, 

 the explanation of a vital force we will retain 

 that name as the most ancient, though it 

 matters little what we call it this explanation 

 too is a verbal one, since you cannot see that 



Is it a force or detect it by the aid of any instrument. 



verbal ex- This we may admit without for a moment con- 

 senting to look upon the theory as a mere verbal 

 one, for if we cannot see the force itself, we 

 can see its manifestations, we can compare them 

 with all the other manifestations with which 

 we are familiar, and, by a process of elimina- 

 tion, we can come to the conclusion that here 

 we are dealing with something of a nature 

 different from that of any non-living force and 

 unknown in non-living nature. This is a matter 

 which has been referred to before, but it will 

 not suffer by reiteration, for it is of the essence 



