LIFE AS ADJUSTMENT 



of the host of illustrations by which this formula 

 is justified, it will be sufficient for our present 

 purpose to select but one or two. " The sting- 

 ing and contractile powers of a polyp's tentacle 

 correspond to the sensitiveness and strength of 

 the creatures serving it for prey. Unless that 

 external change which brings one of these crea- 

 tures in contact with the tentacle were quickly 

 followed by those internal changes which result 

 in the coiling and drawing up of the tentacle, 

 the polyp would die of inanition. The funda- 

 mental processes of integration and disintegra- 



of the circumstances or accidents in which Life is manifested. 

 Concerning this objection, we may content ourselves with the 

 following remarks by Mr. Lewes. Both Life and Mind, 

 says Mr. Lewes, are processes. ** Neither is a substance — 

 neither is a force. To speak of Vitality as a substance would 

 shock all our ideas ; but many speak of it as a force. They 

 might with equal propriety hold Mortality to be a force. 

 What, then, is meant by Vitality, or vital forces ? If the ab- 

 stracdon be resolved into its concretes, it will be seen that a 

 certain process, or group of processes, is condensed into a 

 simple expression, and the final result of this process is trans- 

 posed from a resultant into an initial condition, the name given 

 to the whole group of phenomena becomes the personification 

 of the phenomena, and the product is supposed to have been 

 the producer. In Heu of regarding vital actions as the dyna- 

 mical results of their statical conditions, the actions are person- 

 ified, and the personification comes to be regarded as indicating 

 something independent of and antecedent to the concrete facts 

 it expresses." Problems of Life and Mind, vol. i. p. no. 



98 



