LIFE AND THE COSMOS 807 



remove from the latter view, if I may, some <>f 

 the objections which are commonly raised 

 against it in scientific circles, conscious thai 

 in this attempt I am overstepping the bound- 

 aries of natural science. 



It is evident that a perfect mechanistic 

 description of the building <>f a house may be 

 conceived. Within the world of physical 

 science the whole process is logically complete 

 without consideration of the architect's de- 

 sign and purpose. Yet such desij and 

 purpose, whether or not in themselves of 

 mechanistic origin, are at one and the same 

 time determining factors in the result, ;md 

 nowise components of the physical process. 

 Now it seems clear that a similar effect of a 

 tendency working steadily through the whole 

 process of evolution is also at least conceive- 

 able, however small its bearing upon science, 

 provided, like time itself, it be a perfectly 

 independent variable, making up. therefore, 

 with time the constant environment, so to 

 speak, of the evolutionary process. The tend- 

 ency must not be demonstrable either by 

 weighing or by measuring, else it would 

 amount to an interference within the mech- 



with establish^! facts." — HSBBMBT SpENCBB, 'The Prin- 

 ciples of Biology." Men York And London, L909, V6L I. 

 revised and enlarged edition, p. 116. 



