ON THE STATISTICAL VIEW OF NATURE, 



.49 



Scientific iiUjuiiy in biology and p.sych(.-})liysics has 

 thus advanced on the lines indicated in the earlier 

 chapters, where it was shown how several positive 

 scientific conceptions have been gained, defined, and ap- 

 plied. These conceptions are all generalisations based 

 upon definite observable facts of nature, such as attrac- 

 tion, atomic constitution, motion (rectilinear, periodic, 

 and rotational), energy, form, and change of form,^ and 

 they have given rise to great branches of science, con- 

 taining special methods of thought and reasoning. They 

 have all shown themselves accessible, in a greater or 

 less degree, to mathematical treatment, and have con- 

 sequently been the means of introducing the exact 

 scientific spirit into large fields of research, into ever 



^ The statement in the text is not 

 strictly correct ; for of the six 

 definite conceptions mentioned we 

 really, even in single cases, only 

 see two exemplified — viz., motion 

 and form. Neither attraction, nor 

 the atom, nor energy, nor develop- 

 ment is, even in single cases, 

 observable, though, with the excep- 

 tion of energy, they are very early 

 and very familiar abstractions. 

 This remark may suggest that 

 motion and form are, at least 

 for the present, the simplest and 

 most obvious conceptions into 

 which we can analyse oi- resolve 

 all external observations, and that 

 conseijuently kinetics and mor- 

 phology may be the fundamental 

 sciences, the first in natural phil- 

 osophy, the latter in natural his- 

 tory or biology in the widest sense. 

 That a kinetic view will gradually 

 supervene in natural phiUisoph\- is, 

 I think, generally admitted. It 

 seems less generally conceded that 

 morphology will supervene in 

 biology ; especially as all the rage 



is just now for evolution and 

 development. But as development 

 must start from something, it is 

 likely that it will lead back to 

 morphology. As tending in this 

 direction I read the expositions of 

 Lotze, Claude Bernard, and the 

 " Organicists." Organisation must 

 mean a certain arrangement, and 

 arrangement is ultimately the same 

 as order, structure, or form. It 

 may mean something more — viz., 

 unity or centredness ; but this is 

 a conception not capable of a purely 

 mechanical or geometrical defini- 

 tion ; we know of it only through 

 introsj)ection. A great deal has 

 been written on Morphologj' and 

 Morphogenesis by that very sug- 

 gestive author, Hans Driesch ; see 

 a list of his writings, stipra, p. 4ft6 

 note. I here only refei- to them ; 

 for, being myself unable clearly to 

 apprehend his main drift, I hesitate 

 to quote him as confirming the 

 argument of this note. The reader 

 must judge for himself. 



