198 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. l 



organism, sure to be followed by a depressive reaction, — is 

 founded mainly upon this antiquated a priori conception of 

 a vital principle. To take another instance, colds, fevers, 

 and other diseases are commonly spoken of as entities which 

 " get into the system," and are to be driven out ; and imper- 

 fectly educated physicians are often heard reasoning upon 

 this mythological assumption ; whereas a disease of any kind, 

 scientifically considered, is not an entity, but a disturbance 

 of equilibrium among the interacting functions of the 

 organism. A cancer, for instance, is a modification of struc- 

 ture resulting from a disturbance in the general process 

 of nutrition. Molecules which should normally be deposited 

 here and there throughout the various tissues begin to aggre- 

 gate over a single limited area, forming a new abnormal 

 tissue, of low vitality; and this new tissue grows at the 

 expense of the organism until death ensues from exhaustion, 

 or, if the wall of a large bloodvessel happens to get en- 

 croached upon and disintegrated, death ensues from hemor- 

 rhage. So an ordinary fever, in which blood-poisoning does 

 not occur, is the result of an ill-understood alteration in the 

 molecular properties of the blood, one of the chief symptoms 

 of which is the adherence of the blood-corpuscles to the walls 

 of the capillaries. Yet so prevalent still is the personifying 

 habit of thought, that cancers and fevers are spoken of and 

 reasoned about as occult entities, as ugly Things which some- 

 how or other " get into " the blood. 



It is hardly necessary to insist upon the prevalence of the 

 metaphysical habit in sociology, where final causes are still 

 sought after, where the doctrine of the " freedom of the will " 

 (or, as it might better be termed, of the " lawlessness of voli- 

 tion ") still maintains a precarious footing, and where prac- 

 tical conclusions are constantly based upon the a priori 

 doctrine of inherent " rights." Here, too, as well as in 

 biology, even the theological point of view not unfrequently 

 appears. The late war between France and Germany was 



