172 A THEORY OF LIFE 



work under the laws which seem to govern it. 

 It is one more added to the long list of " explana- 

 tions," which hopelessly break down because those 

 who have put them forward have never appar- 

 ently applied themselves to the task of grasping 

 the important difference between a final and an 

 intermediate cause. 



Let us sum up this part of our author's teach- 

 ing in the light of this distinction. The organism 

 is a material complex, and all sorts of actions and 

 reactions take place in it. They are subject to 

 the laws of physics, and notably to those relating 

 to energy and its transformations. It has internal 

 energies which must be adjusted to one another 

 and not less to those around it ; that is to say, it 

 must be more or less in harmony with its environ- 

 ment. There are the problems of germ-plasm, 

 and its transmission ; the effect on it, if any, of 

 the body, and the reaction of the body to its 

 environment. There are also the catalysers of 

 which we have spoken, with many problems 

 associated with them, and throwing a possible 

 and unexpected light on the vexed question of 

 Vitalism and the Conservation of Energy. There 

 are all these things, manifestations of energy ; 

 there is the watch, and it is going. But, as we 

 remarked elsewhere, the fact that we have learned 

 that the resiliency of the spring in the watch makes 

 it " go " does not exhaust the explanation of the 

 watch any more than the fact that we know some- 

 thing of the actions and reactions of energy in the 

 organism exhausts its explanation. The watch is 

 " going " ; so is the organism. Each of them, 



