1 86 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



which go on in the protoplasm of living things as some- 

 thing simple, easily understood and accounted for, 

 because we have given up the notion that life is an 

 entity which enters into living things from without arid 

 escapes from them at death. The real fact is, that the 

 notion of " spirits," whether of a lower or of a higher 

 kind, supposed to enter into and " affect " various natural 

 objects, including trees, rivers, and mountains, as well as 

 animals and man, does not help us, and only stands in 

 the way of our gaining more complete knowledge of 

 natural processes. When we say that life and even its 

 most tremendous outcome the mind of man are to be 

 studied and their gradual development traced as part of 

 the orderly unfolding of natural processes, we are no 

 whit less reverent, in no degree less impressed by the 

 wonder, immensity, and mystery of the universe, than 

 those who, with happy and obstinate adherence to primi- 

 tive conceptions, think that they can explain things by 

 calling up vital essences and wandering spirits. 



