THE MECHANISTIC CONCEPTION 27 



to vitalism. If we accept vitalism in the present 

 state of science as a substitute for the mechanistic 

 hypothesis of life, we must do so with the knowledge 

 that a stimulating working hypothesis is being dis- 

 placed by one which holds out no helping hand to 

 the investigator. For we cannot look on a belief in 

 vitalism except as an act of faith. The conception 

 is too vague, too inexpressible in terms that are 

 clearly intelligible, to serve as a real aid to the 

 progress of scientific thought. There is little room 

 for doubt that the mechanistic theory is the one 

 which now best serves the interests of humanity. 

 And it seems to me this position is defensible even if 

 one is prepared to admit that there is little proba- 

 bility of the human mind being able to resolve 

 finally the phenomena of life and matter. For this 

 admission does not imply that living organisms are 

 not in all respects mechanisms. The failure to 

 understand all the forces at work in the mechanism 

 may perhaps be due to the limited grasp of human 

 faculty. And it is especially in the reconstruction 

 of the phenomena of the present from the occurrences 

 of the past that the human mind falls short. 



Those who are disposed to turn towards vitalism 

 in order to get a better explanation of the properties 

 of living matter should not overlook the limitations 

 that bound our understanding of the forces that 

 dominate the inorganic universe. So long as we 

 have no real explanation for facts so elementary as 

 the contrast between the solubility of calcium chloride 



