234 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



about them. They certainly seem to exemplify 

 those ideas of control and release of which more 

 will be said in succeeding pages. Even if it turns 

 out on further investigation that these facts do 

 not solve the question, they seem to throw con- 

 siderable light upon it, and in any case it would 

 be rating the content far too high were we to 

 conclude that the Law of the Conservation of 

 Energy excludes the possibility of the existence 

 of a power controlling the operations of the cell ? 

 To infer this fact would be to assume, as we 

 have no right to do, that we know all about 

 the Laws of Nature and the particular Law in 

 question, as well as to assume that the facts 

 of living matter are opposed to the law as at 

 present formulated, which is by no means 

 certain. 



" The very advance of physics," says Ward,* 

 " is proving the most effectual cure for this 

 ignorant faith in matter and motion as the in- 

 most substances rather than the most abstract 

 symbols of the sum of existence." 



Are we then to argue, as some have done, that 

 the Law in question, whilst applicable to all 

 inanimate Nature is abrogated in the world of 

 Life? 



Here it is prudent to revert to the considera- 



* On the Conservation of Energy, p. 

 * GI>. cil., 180. 



