300 THE FITNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT 



putting aside mechanistic differences, is it not 

 now lost in any case ? Has not modern vital- 

 ism in accepting the limitation to entelechies 

 or impetus destroyed itself ? 



The situation, briefly, seems to be as fol- 

 lows : two evolutionary processes independ- 

 ently result in two complementary fitnesses; 

 hence they are related. In the one process 

 the origin of fitness is in part explained by a 

 mechanistic hypothesis. Nevertheless, many 

 philosophers, as is their right, declare that in 

 this process a further extraphysical influence 

 is to be assumed. But any one who makes 

 such an assumption for the one process must 

 certainly now make it for the other; thus he 

 will be led to see impetus or entelechies every- 

 where. Under these circumstances it may 

 be doubted if his acquaintance with the na- 

 ture of his impetus or entelechies is so inti- 

 mate that he will be able to distinguish the 

 inorganic from the organic, for he has surren- 

 dered to science all the positive physico-chem- 

 ical differences between organic and inorganic 

 bodies and processes. Hence, unless he is to 

 make an arbitrary and unintelligible distinc- 

 tion, or to indulge in the spinning of cob- 

 webs, his vitalism has ceased to be exclusively 

 organic, in short has ceased to be vitalism at 

 all, and has become mere universal teleology. 



