228 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



Furthermore it is to be remembered that our 

 conception of these uniformities or laws of 

 Nature are based on our present experience, 

 and that the extension of that experience may 

 require us to introduce modifications into our 

 expression of the facts as they appear to us, or, 

 in other words, may lead to a change in the 

 formulation of the law. In fine there is nothing 

 sacrosanct about the laws of Nature, which for- 

 bids criticism or denies the possibility of error 

 in our comprehension of them. 

 Vital With these prefatory remarks we may attack 



CriCrfiTV 



the problem before us and at once admit that 

 much difficulty has been felt in accounting for 

 the power which, we have endeavoured to show, 

 exists in living matter, the power which directs 

 and, still more, initiates cnemico-physicar pro- 

 cesses in the living organism. Is it subject to 

 the laws above detailed ? Where does it come 

 from, and whither does it go ? Many attempts 

 have been made to clear up this difficulty though 

 some maintain that it is no difficulty at all. 

 Professor B. Moore, for example, as we have 

 seen, believes in what he calls a "biotic energy," 

 and this energy is, he thinks,* " just as closely, 

 and no more related to the various forms of 

 energy existing apart from life, as these are to 

 one another, and that in the presence of the 



* Op. cit., p. 4. 



