$8 WITHIN AND WITHOUT 



independent variable, extends indefinitely with- 

 out hint of either beginning or end. Such a 

 system of knowledge, once we are inside it, so to 

 say, is entirely self-contained and complete." 



" Once we are inside it ! " what so many writers 

 forget or ignore is that they are inside it, and that 

 their explanations do not explain the system or 

 how it came to be there or to be in operation. 

 Everybody is familiar with Paley's example of the 

 watch found on the heath. Let us carry it a 

 little further. Suppose some student, after 

 devoting years of patient examination to the watch, 

 were to come forward and say : " I have dis- 

 covered the secret of this watch. There is a 

 spring in it which possesses resiliency, and it is 

 that which drives the wheels. I think I have 

 heard people say that there must have been a 

 watchmaker to design and construct this piece of 

 machinery, but, in face of my discoveries, any 

 such explanation is wholly unnecessary and may 

 be altogether abandoned." 



Perhaps this analogy may be regarded as exag- 

 gerated ; but, before thus condemning it, let the 

 following passage be studied. It is from a very 

 important book recently published, which claims 

 (and has had its claim supported by many 

 periodicals) to have done away with any need 

 for an explanation of life beyond that which can 

 be given by chemistry and physics, Jacques Loeb's 

 Organism as a Whole ^ from a Pbysico-Chemical 

 Viewpoint. 



It would be hard to find a worse example of 



