A THEORY OF LIFE 171 



discoveries of quite recent date as to which we 

 still know but little. " Simple " seems hardly the 

 word to apply, save in strict relation to other 

 and higher forms. How did this laboratory 

 come into existence ? In what way did it learn 

 to do its work ? How did catalysers come to be ? 

 Was all this mere chance-medley ? It is Paley's 

 example of the watch found on the heath once 

 more. Does it help us in any way to talk about 

 " energy " and " complexes " of energy and " the 

 creative force of energy " ? To us it does not 

 seem to advance matters one little bit. Either 

 these operations of Nitrosomonas are determined 

 or they are not ; either they are the result of a 

 law or they are the result of blind chance ; in 

 either case the energy which is involved must 

 act according to the conditions ordered or not 

 ordered. In other words : if it is the dominant 

 factor, as the writer would lead us to suppose ; 

 if there is " direction," then the action of energy 

 must be directive ; and, if it is directive, in what 

 possible way does it diifer, save in name, from the 

 old entelechy or vital principle, or whatever else 

 one may choose to call it ? On the other hand, 

 if there is no such a thing as direction, if every- 

 thing happens by chance, if the mechanistic 

 theory is right, how does energy save us from 

 complete surrender to that theory ? 



From all this it would appear that whilst energy 

 is constantly being exhibited (and in all sorts of 

 manifestations) by the living object, that does not 

 explain anything, since it does not explain how 

 energy originally came to be, nor how it came to 



