THE BAFFLING PROBLEM 



VII 



Without metaphysics we can do nothing; without 

 mental concepts, where are we? Natural selection 

 is as much a metaphysical phrase as is consciousness, 

 or the subjective and the objective. Natural selec- 

 tion is not an entity, it is a name for what we con- 

 ceive of as a process. It is natural rejection as well. 

 The vital principle is a metaphysical concept; so is 

 instinct; so is reason; so is the soul; so is God. 



Many of our concepts have been wrong. The con- 

 cept of witches, of disease as the work of evil spirits, 

 of famine and pestilence as the visitation of the 

 wrath of God, and the like, were unfounded. Sci- 

 ence sets us right about all such matters. It corrects 

 our philosophy, but it cannot dispense with the phil- 

 osophical attitude of mind. The philosophical must 

 supplement the experimental. 



In fact, in considering this question of life, it is 

 about as difficult for the unscientific mind to get 

 along without postulating a vital principle or force 

 ■ — which, Huxley says, is analogous to the idea of 

 a principle of aquosity in water — as it is to walk 

 upon the air, or to hang one's coat upon a sunbeam. 

 It seems as if something must breathe upon the 

 dead matter, as at the first, to make it live. Yet if 

 there is a distinct vital force it must be correlated 

 with physical force, it must be related causally to 

 the rest. The idea of a vital force as something new 



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