LIFE AND THE COSMOS 



trarily reached in accordance with precon- 

 ceived views, and quite without scientific 

 justification. There is certainly no reason 

 to ascribe greater importance to energy than 



to matter in the vital processes, and in the 

 light of the facts with which the preceding 

 chapters are concerned, such views seem 

 absurd. Indeed, whoever is disposed to spec- 

 ulate about biological fitness — and not even 

 the incomparable finesse of M. Bergson's dia- 

 lectic can make fitness other than the most 

 general result of the process of organic evolu- 

 tion — must now weigh well the cosmic pro- 

 cesses. For, if allowance be made for the 

 results of natural selection in the organic 

 world, fitness of the environment has the 

 greater claim to be considered. 



The two fitnesses are complementary; are 

 they then single or dual in origin ? The simple 

 view would be to imagine one common impe- 

 tus operating upon all matter, inorganic and 

 organic, through all stages of its evolution, 

 in all its states and forms, and leading to 

 worlds like our own through paths apparently 

 purposeful and really not yet explained. 

 Such, it seems to me, is the natural hypothesis 

 for the vitalist to adopt. But then vitalism 

 vanishes, only teleology remains; for the 

 unique characteristic of life is gone. Vet, 



